The Bugger War
by xXHamHamLoverXx
Summary: An intelligent race of alien called the Buggers are threatening the planet Earth and all the people who live on it. Luckily, the girls of Astrea Hill are being trained to take care of it.
1. Filler Chapter

Hello hello! Welcome to my new fan fiction: The Bugger War. This is my first spin-off fiction for Strawberry Panic. We'll be mixing up aspects from Ender's Game into the fic, hence the title. Please note that I do not own either Ender's Game or Strawberry Panic, they're owned by someone else. No, really. Some other of my fan fics are going to be coming into production ASAP.

**Plot:**

The planet Earth is being threatened by a race of intelligent aliens called "Buggers" and is in total jeopardy. Luckily, these young girls are being trained to deal with it.

This is just so people can understand what's going on. If you're interested, please click the drop-down menu and enjoy chapter 1.

Ham-Ham-Lover


	2. Launchies

Welcome to Chapter 1. I won't be having long introductions like in the last fic, I don't want to give too much away. This chapter is a bit long, sorry about that. I'm working on it, honestly. So here it is, Chapter 1!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Strawberry Panic. If I did...Hikari would ditch Amane and become a rocker wearing chains and tight pants. Oh, the image...

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Chapter 1: Launchies

"**So what do you think this girl can give us, Graff?"**

"**We don't really know yet. Give her a day without the monitor, and we'll see what she can give us."**

"**Graff, Graff. You can't just take away a kid's monitor and say that they're eligible for Battle School. What if she's weak?"**

"**She's not. Haven't you been watching her since the day she was born? She could walk at nine months old."**

"**So? Kids start walking at all different ages."**

"**Right. But the reasons that her parents have for keeping her monitor on her for this long are astounding."**

**  
"What are the reasons?"**

"**They wanted to make sure that we would recruit her."**

"**Is that so? So then they knew that she would turn out as smart as she is?"**

"**Exactly. Anderson, those parents are geniuses. Both science teachers at different schools. Undercover members of the I.F. Changed names. That's why Kaname doesn't know them."**

"**She hasn't figured that out, though."**

"**Of course not. They made sure it stayed that way until she finished at Battle School. They're determined."**

"**So what, we're just going to give them what they want and send her off there? She's only seven, a lot of girls will be older, bigger and stronger than her."**

"**She'll just have to learn how to deal with it."**

Kenjou Kaname stood in the doorway towards the doctors' office, waiting to be told what to do. She never did anything without approval first. The doctors and nurses who were supposed to be taking out her monitor that day were running around and trying to get everything set up, they didn't notice the small girl standing there and waiting.

One middle-aged woman finally walked up to Kaname, held out her hand to her, and walked her over to the slim hospital bed. She climbed onto it hesitantly and lay herself on her back.

"I still don't understand why they would get rid of this one's monitor so late. The last kid we did this on was only four, and Kenjou here is seven. Why they take it out so late?" one woman asked as they played around with some medical tubes and the like. Kaname wondered to herself why they were paid to do this kind of job.

"Don't know. Parents must be overly protective these days. Doesn't surprise me, though, buggers on the loose in space all the time. Alright kid, you're going to feel some pressure on your neck, but don't worry about it. Now, when it's gone, you're going to have this feeling of emptiness. You'll be looking for something, but you won't know what it is. That's the monitor you're looking for, and it's gone. Got it?"

Kaname nodded, as though she understood. She knew it would please them, and it did. Suddenly, she felt a hot sort of twisting pressure on the back of her neck and her body went rigid. She felt something detach from her skin and she twitched horribly, clutching the back of her neck. She had to be calmed down by the nurse and the doctor, and soon she was walking out of the building with a band-aid on her neck and a slight feeling of loss.

"_I need something...but what is it?"_ she asked herself, touching the band-aid on her neck. It felt weird not having that mechanical diamond-shaped chip wedged into her neck. Then again, this made her feel like everyone else. Not one kid near her that was her age had their monitor anymore.

Kaname left the hospital and stood on the street curb, waiting for her foster mother to come pick her up. She had a weird sort of giddy-ness about her, even though there would really be nothing to be giddy about once she got home. Her fellow foster brothers and sisters would probably stare, point and whisper at her, as they had when she had first been dropped off. Her mother told her that she'd come back for her...soon. But how soon was soon?

A car pulled up to her, the musical horn of the old yellow bug sounded in her ears, and she mentally smiled. She'd always loved that horn. She ran over to the car and jumped into the passenger's side, and her foster mother spoke to her at once.

"So. Lemme see."

Kaname showed her the back of her neck, and the mother nodded. "Good, good. Now you're normal, just like the rest of the kids. It's strange, your biological parents just called me yesterday to have it removed. I wonder why..."

Kaname simply shrugged. She didn't know, and didn't really care. Though she did care that her biological parents communicated with her foster parents, and did not once request to talk to her. Sure, they sent her postcards and the occasional few dollars in the mail, but otherwise she did not know what they looked like or how they sounded, did not have any visual image she could recal.

As they drove up to the foster home and entered the door, Kaname could already sense the presence of her foster siblings growing stronger, and as she thought, they all stood in a small group at the foot of the stairs leading to the bedrooms, watching her. One small girl took one look at her and looked to the others, then back to her.

"Your monitor," she said, and Kaname shrugged.

"So, how does it feel to finally be normal, eh?" one of the older boys asked, and Kaname simply shrugged again. She really had no answer.

"Oh, leave her alone, you lot. Let her rest." Her foster mother nodded at her, and Kaname took that as her queue to leave. As though it were a ritual, she kicked off her shoes and sat on her bed, looking out the window and wondering what it would be like to have a normal family. A lot of kids didn't have brothers or sisters, just them and their parents. Kaname would probably be an only child, just living with her parents. And then the question came to her again..._why didn't her parents want her?_

Kaname wasn't really upset about it. She simply wondered, as she wondered about a lot of things. Her foster mother explained to her other children that it was normal for Kaname to be spacey, because she was only a seven-year-old and just starting to recognize the world around her. She remembered when she was five, only two years previous, that she used to say things at one-million words per minute sometimes, and all about one particular subject. Now she rarely spoke at all. Mostly, it was because she was too busy thinking. She liked to think before she spoke or acted, unlike her other foster siblings. That was probably what set her apart from them, what made her different.

A few hours later, after Kaname had her short two-hour nap, her foster mother entered her room.

"Kaname, hun...you need to come downstairs."

Kaname looked curious. "How come?"

"We'll explain when you come down." Her foster mother left her room, and Kaname followed. Indeed, when she got downstairs, the rest of the foster children were huddled in a corner again, and her foster mother and father were standing in the middle of the room, staring at he front door. A man was standing there, a very tall man with sideburns and with a very professional I.F. uniform on. Kaname looked around the room at her foster parents.

"I suppose you might know who I am already," the uniformed man asked Kaname, looking down at her. Kaname looked back and nodded.

"Of course. You must be a representative from the International Fleet. I recognized the uniform from the videos that they make us watch at school."

"Naturally. You might be wondering why I'm here."

Kaname nodded, simply nodded.

"Well, we're off initiating new recruits for Battle School. Twenty people just like me are off at other kids' houses trying to do the exact same thing that I'm doing now. However, I'm different. I've got the smartest out of all of them."

Kaname mentally flushed, but she kept the blank expression on her face. She was able to mask out her true feelings now, she had practiced a lot in her spare time. She could act happy when she wasn't, she could act surprised when she wasn't. The man kneeled down to her height.

"My name is Colonel Graff, Kaname. Well, you can guess what we want you for. Have you watched the vids of the First and Second Invasions?"

Kaname nodded.

"Then you know that we need someone like you up there. You and the other girls at Battle School. To make a long story short, we need someone like Mazar Rackham. You remember who he is, right?"

Kaname nodded again. "Of course. He led the troops into the First and Second Invasions."

"Right. And so we need someone like that again, only...a bit younger. We're not positive yet, but we believe you could be the next Mazar Rackham. Well, this is your chance to make us positive."

Kaname looked at Graff. She didn't believe him. She was a loner, a nothing...how could she help them?

"Hold on a minute!" one of her foster brothers suddenly said, and Kaname turned to him, surprised. "Why does it have to be her? Why can't it be one of us?!"

There were murmurs of agreement at this statement, and Graff laughed.

"What, a bunch of couch potatoes and whiners up at our Battle School? The I.F. doesn't want kids like that. We only take kids who have a high potential, and your 'sister' here has it. If you want to go to Battle School, go ahead and arrange for a spaceship to take you. However, you should be warned that intruders will be iced."

The boy went silent, and Kaname wondered what 'iced' meant.

"That's right. Iced. Sent back into space. Done." Graff looked back at Kaname. "So, what will it be?"

Kaname thought for a minute. This was it, this was her chance to make a difference in the world. But she didn't know if she wanted to leave her foster parents, the ones who fed her and clothed her and kept her safe. She looked over to them, and they looked back and smiled at her.

"It's not our decision, you know. You can go if you want to," her foster mother said.

"I'm scared," Kaname finally said, looking into her eyes.

"I know."

Kaname was silent again, and she looked back to Graff with a determined expression on her face.

"I don't want to go. But I will."

"Perfect. Go get packed, you'll be there for a while."

Kaname ran upstairs in a sudden euphoria, and started to cram a lot of things into a huge duffel sports bag that had been passed down to her by another foster kid, who had been adopted the year Kaname had started. She didn't pack much, just underclothes, a few t-shirts, jeans and shorts, her toothbrush and toothpaste, and the few letters she had received from her parents. She smiled to herself, now that no one could see. She was going into space. Space! She wished she could tell her parents. _Mom, Dad, I'm going to be an astronaut! I'll name a planet after you, okay?_

Minutes later, she stumbled down the stairs with her huge bag, and Graff watched her with his eyebrows raised. She stood there, holding the strap to keep herself from falling over, and she turned to her foster parents and gave them both a hug. She looked over to her siblings and saluted them, and they followed, giggling and laughing.

"Do good up there!" one of the older girls said.

"Kill some buggers for me!"

"Yeah! Don't forget about us!"

Kaname followed Graff outside. There was a small, two-person vehicle parked outside the house, almost waiting for them. She looked back at her foster home, her sanctuary, and waved. More than a dozen hands waved back at her from the entrance, and she entered the vehicle and started driving away. The vehicle, however, started to change as they were driving, the car grew metal-like wings on the doors and the shape of the vehicle changed. It was as though they were flying a jet of some sort. They flew into the air, past the sky, past the clouds, and into space. And Kaname smiled.

"This is the coolest thing I've ever done."

"Hold onto your over-sized duffel bag, Kenjou. Because you ain't seen nothin yet."

--

They arrived at the launch group in three hours. The space ship would take them all to Astrea Hill, a seemingly-normal all-girls' catholic school up in space. But Kaname knew better than to think that this was only school. It was almost like they were going to Military school. They were going to learn how to deal with pistols and they were going to be learning about war history, watching vids of the bugger invasions and they would be working in the Battle Room. She had read all kinds of books about it in the library, and read essays that former students wrote when they had graduated from Command School.

Kaname didn't get involved with the other children in her launch group. She didn't exactly find them interesting, except for the girl she was assigned to sit next to. She had honey-colored hair and hazel eyes, and her voice was positively angelic. She looked at her, and she looked back. She appeared to be a bit younger than her.

"Hi," the girl said, smiling.

"Hi."

"My name is Momomi. Kiyashiki Momomi.

"Kenjou Kaname."

"Double letters. Hey."

"Yeah, I guess."

"So, looking forward to Battle School?"

Kaname paused for a little while. Was she really looking forward to being way up in space with a bunch of kids she didn't know?

"I guess so."

"How old are you?"

"Seven."

"Really? I'm only six."

"Don't look six to me. More like five."

"Oh, that's mean."

Kaname smirked a bit. Their conversation lasted for about a half an hour before everyone fell silent. Two girls were acceding a ladder, both older than the children in the launch group. One was wearing a white uniform, the other was wearing pink.

"Alright, settle down, kiddies! My name is Toumori Shion and this is my right-hand, Miamoto Chikaru. We-what is it, Chikaru?"

The smaller girl was whispering in the older's ear, and Shion flushed lightly and cleared her throat.

"Anyways, we're going to be your launch's supervisors for this flight. I hope I don't have to say that your hands and feet should be inside the shuttle at all times, but maybe some of you like to experiment by hanging your legs out of the windows."

Slight laughter.

"Now, where you're going is no place to play. You'll be doing very hard work from now on. There are four levels of schools here in space, all on different planets. There's Battle School, Tactical School, Pre-Command School and Command School. I'll bet only five percent of you will make it as far as Pre-Command School. I'm not seeing a very bright bunch here."

"Of course not, we don't have such bright foreheads like you do, Mistress Toumori!"

There was laughing, and even Shion smiled a bit. "At least you have a sense of humor...if that counts as sense at all. Is everyone strapped in? Then let's start the launch!"

There were cheers of excitement and clapping, and Kaname could feel herself detaching from her seat as they plunged deeper into space. Kaname and Momomi were two of the few kids who managed to get themselves situated.

Null-G was very disorienting for a few minutes. Kaname found herself upside-down in her seat, trying to reorient herself. Momomi was no better, she only had one foot in her straps and was trying to pull herself back into the seat. Kaname could see Shion and Chikaru staring at them, and it made her feel slightly stupid.

_So they're already picking at our flaws...they've been watching us since we arrived,_ Kaname thought to herself, as she helped Momomi back into her seat. It would be a long while before they would arrive.


	3. From Scholars to Soldiers

Welcome to Chapter 2 of The Bugger War! Looking over my last chapter, I thought that I really could have done better, maybe I should have revised it a bit. But oh well, whatever. My expectations are pretty low for this fan fiction anyway, since I don't know much about Sci-Fi and this is my first time writing it. Well, here you have it, Chapter 2.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Ender's game or Strawberry Panic. If I did, the Astrea girls would have sexual intentions at age seven. But they don't. Damn it.

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Chapter 2: From Scholars to Soldiers 

The launch group finally arrived at Astrea Hill about an hour later, and the exited young girls wanted to go explore. But Toumori Shion seemed to have other plans for them.

"Alright, kids. The first thing we have to do is issue you a uniform. You'll notice that me and Chikaru are already wearing one. Yours won't be like ours, since we're bigger than you and we're in an army. You guys probably won't be in an army for another year or two, given the fact that you're as dense as I think you are. You'll get a different color uniform representing the school you will be going to. There are three schools total on Astrea Hil. St. Miator, St. Spica and St. Lulim. Miator is green, Spica is white and Lulim is pink, that should be obvious."

The kids formed a small group in front of the older students, and were issued their school uniforms. Kaname was in St. Spica, along with her friend Momomi. The uniforms were very light and the skirts were short, and Kaname felt naked as she wore it. The clothes that she used to wear on Earth, her "civilian" clothes, were heavier and a lot more snug. Kaname looked around at the uniforms the launchies were putting on, and looked at Chikaru and Shion's uniforms. Theirs looked a bit more sturdy, and they had stripes, and a small badge on the chest. The colors also seemed more flamboyant, and they were wearing pants, not skirts.

"Excuse me," Momomi asked. "What are those badges that you're wearing?"

Shion looked to Chikaru and smiled at her. "These are the badges that students wear when they are in_ armies_. I myself am the commander of Rat Army. My badge is a star, and the other ones are circles."

There was a lot of conversation about this matter. People were thinking how cool it would be if they could walk around with those kids of badges, if they could be commanders of armies. Kaname silently wondered how cool it would be as well.

Then, there was another kid of whisper, that wasn't related to the badges, but veered toward the attention of four people walking towards them. One had very long, silver hair, and a girl with short navy hair walked next to her, looking a bit shy. They were both wearing green, and also with a badge on their chests. Two more girls, one wearing white and one wearing pink. They all stood in a line, assorted by their colored school uniforms.

"Now," Shion said to the launch group, and everyone went silent again. "Each group of students from each school are going to be assigned guards. Think of us as your parents from now until you get into an army. Now follow us and we'll be able to show you to your rooms."

The rooms were small. Then again, the children were small. It made sense. It was just hard being in a room with thirty other kids. Kaname's claustrophobia was kicking in again. She took long, staggering breaths to keep herself calm, and walking along with Momomi made it better as well. As the lauchies walked down the hallways of the main dorms, a few older girls poked their heads out of their own dorms to stare and jeer at them.

"Yo, fresh meat!"

"_Look_ at them, they're so_tiny_!"

Kaname blinked. They _were_ tiny compared to the eleven and twelve-year-olds. There wasn't a kid over eight in the launch group. But Kaname was sure that there were no teenagers there...that would be scary. The only teenager that Kaname had ever known in her life was Nick...or whom she called "Niku." He was an American boy who was fourteen and was her foster brother for four years until he turned 18, then he left and gave her the duffel bag she now carried on her arm. Even though she was much smaller than him, they were friends, almost like a real brother and sister.

They were showed their rooms. Each girl had a bunk and an automated locker of some sort. Kaname examined it, while the other kids, including Momomi, were fiddling around with it, touching the little square sensor shaped like a hand. The launchies were sorted into three rooms, separated by school.

"These are your desks. Inside, you will find your weapon and your flash suit for when we start training in the Battle Room," Shion explained to them. "Put your name over the hand-shaped sensor and speak your name twice."

Kaname did as she was told. She placed her hand over the sensor and said "Kenjou Kaname. Kenjou Kaname." Nothing happened for a second, then the locker swung open and she had to step back to keep it from hitting her in the head. She looked over at where Momomi was standing, and she had just spoken her name twice, and was wondering why it wasn't opening, examing the locker and standing there. The locker swung open and hit her right in the center of her forehead. Kaname had never been so close to bursting out laughing in her life. She sure was smiling widely, and Momomi caught her eye and glared. Kaname averted her gaze and looked down.

There indeed was a pistol-like item. It was plastic, and at the end of the pistol was like a crystallized tip. There was also a suit, but it was in pieces. She blinked and examined it a bit more. There were two buttons on the pistol, one orange and one blue. And there was a trigger as well. She looked around the room and noticed that Momomi also had her pistol out and was pointing it at someone, then she saw Kaname and edged over to her.

"So, what do you think it is?" Momomi asked as they stood next to each other with their pistols.

"A pistol."

Momomi narrowed her eyes. "Really? I had no idea. Thought that was a toilet cleaner."

"No, that's what your head is."

"Haha, very funny. I wonder what the buttons do, though."

"I'm wondering the same thing."

"Let's try them out, eh?"

Kaname nodded, and she and Momomi pressed the red button at the same time. The handle of the pistol became very cold. They pressed the white button, and the handle of the pistol became very hot. They pressed the trigger, and nothing happened.

"How lame," Momomi said, frowning at the plastic toy.

"Maybe they only work inside the Battle Room," Kaname pointed out, and Shion suddenly appeared as she was saying this.

"Exactly. Has anyone else got her locker open besides these two?" she asked. A few girls did, but not many. Others were trying to pry theirs open, others were kicking it. Shion rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Worthless, the lot of you. Have to be told everything, right? Well, if you're not settled in yet, you can do so on your lunch period. I'm going to give you a tour of the school you'll be going to."

The white-clad Spicans followed Shion out of the dorms, ignoring the many jeers of the older students, and made their way to a separate building across from them. It was very large building with several rooms and a dome-like ceiling, and the children marveled at it. The Miator group and the Lulim group were close behind them.

"This is where you'll be doing your combat training, here in the Battle Room. There are really nine floors, though you only see one. Only commanders are allowed to open the gates to the other eight. Those pistols that you were looking at, or most of you were looking at, only work in the Battle Room. That suit that was in pieces in your locker, that's a flash suit. You are to be wearing your flash suit and you are to be carrying your pistol with you whenever you enter the Battle Room, no exceptions. Only when you are studying outside of the Battle Room will you be permitted to change out of your flash suit and into your regular uniforms. Are we clear so far?"

Murmurs of "Hai" followed this statement, and Shion went on explaining the Battle Rooms and what they would be learning, and how they would learn. Kaname was already exited about their training, and couldn't wait to get into the Battle Room. Half an hour later, they were done with their tour and Shion dismissed them for lunch. She walked with Momomi and another girl they had met while on the tour, Otori Amane. It took Kaname a few minutes to figure out that the girl wasn't a boy.

They sat in the lunch room with their trays, and instantly started to talk about the Battle Room, regular studies, the dorms, Shion and a lot of other things. Kaname thought to herself, _this is my calling. This is what I was born to do._

Regular studies weren't nearly as exiting as the Battle Room, but they were very helpful. Instead of taking a physical approach, they read books and watched the vids of the First and Second Invasions, and the sensei pointed out things that Kaname had never noticed before. Mazar Rackham flew his ships and commanded his armies with such grace, such speed, that the ships were barely recognizable by the buggers until it was too late. They watched as hundreds of thousands of buggers were killed, all at once, diminished.

"I don't get it...it's all drabble to me," Momomi said once as they were watching one of the vids.

"Just pay attention," Kaname said intently, and Momomi went silent.

Extra-extracurriculars were fun, but there was a slight problem. Kaname hardly knew how to swim. She was never able to learn because she was small, and she had problems saying in the water without freaking out and splashing everywhere. Momomi questioned whether or not she was hydrophobic as she watched her, and Kaname simply shook her head.

"I just can't swim," she explained as she and Momomi were sitting on the edge of the pool with their feet in the water.

"Swimming is easy," Momomi said, waving her hand as though the matter was a very annoying fly. "All you have to do is remain calm and you'll do fine. The problem with you is that you're too busy worrying about drowning instead of trying to learn how _not_ to drown. Don't tense up your muscles, it makes it hard to swim and you get cramps that way. Here, let me teach you."

And so they both immersed into the water. Kaname made sure that she was being closely watched by Momomi at all times. _This is stupid_, she thought to herself as she held onto the edge of the pool and practiced her kicking. _A seven-year-old having to be taught how to swim by a six-year-old_. But Kaname didn't really care, because Momomi was her friend, the first friend she'd ever made that wasn't part of her foster group. In a few weeks, she would be swimming fine.

On their second day of studies, Shion took them to the Battle Room. They filed in very clumsily, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, holding onto the handholds and pulling themselves. Null-G was still very disorienting, and the flash suits were no better. They made it hard to move in one simple direction. But Kaname found that she could still use her feet pretty well, and after a while, she got a crazy idea. She planted her feet against the wall that the handholds were connected on and she pushed off.

It wasn't something she was expecting. She flipped around and landed on her back against the wall. She rebounded and flew across the Battle Room, spinning over and over again like some sort of roller coaster ride.

For a sickening moment, when she felt like her stomach was attached to her back and the guts from her head seemed to pour out of her ears, her body tried to reorient itself, trying to seek the gravity that wasn't there. And she noticed that she wasn't going towards the opposite wall. She was going _down,_ not flying, but falling in a sort of dive. _If I soften the impact...if I fly at an angle I could probably roll and..._

Nothing always worked the way she planned. She did fly off at an angle, but it wasn't the angle she predicted, but she accidentally found a way to use her feet to control the rebound. Now she was flying back to the group of girls holding the railings, but at a crazy angle. But she was no more upside-down than they were.

Momomi, who she had ended up by, shook her head. "Are your brains filled with farts or something? Are you trying to kill yourself?"

"Just try it," Kaname said, "just use your feet to control your flying."

Momomi shook her head again. She wasn't foolhardy like Kaname was, she was more cautious and worrying. But a girl did take off, and Kaname looked around. Amane, the girl that Kaname thought was a boy, with that turquoise-colored hair. She aimed herself at a corner of the room, did a spectacular triple-bounce and, still with most of her speed, went flying off at an unexpected angle. The other girls clapped and whooped and shouted, and too caught up in the excitement to notice, they let go of the railings and floated off in different directions.

Kaname held the floor with one hand, fiddling with the toy gun attached to her flash suit. She'd pressed all the buttons in the room and they didn't work. So she tried them here in the Battle Room. She pulled the trigger, and a small beam of light appeared on the floor. She pushed the red button and then pulled the trigger again, and it was the same thing. She pushed the white button, and there was a bright light that illuminated a wide area.

_So, the red button is a laser and the white button is a flashlight..._Kaname thought to herself. _But this isn't going to be any help unless we work on moving our bodies and reorienting ourselves, controlling our angles and accuracy, and controlling our rebounds, or else the other armies will stomp on us like dirt._

She saw Momomi right away. She was close to her, and on impulse she pushed off and aimed herself for her. Kaname noticed too late that she had aimed too well...she wasn't going to land near her, she was going to run into her.

"Take my hand!" Momomi said, and Kaname did so. Momomi took the shock of the impact and made it easy for Kaname to make a safe landing against the wall.

"We should practice stuff like that," Kaname said, and Momomi nodded.

"That's what I was thinking. Look at us, we're all floating around like balloons out of orbit."

"You and your jokes..."

"You can let go of my hand now."

Kaname let go and flushed a bit. "I have an idea, though. If we're holding each other, will we be able to push each other off at different directions?"

"Dunno. Wanna try?"

"Okay."

The two of them were now holding each other at their palms and feet, ready to push off.

"Ready?"

"Set."

"Go!"

They pushed off at the same amount of force, and they circled each other for a few moments. Kaname did a few leg movements and they started drifting lazily in the air.

"Let's push off before we run into them," Momomi said, pointing her thumb at a group of girls behind them.

"Meet in that corner over there," Kaname said, pointing.

"Roger that."

They pushed each other again, and they went off in opposite directions. It took Kaname a while to find the corner where they were supposed to meet, and Momomi joined her not too long after.

"Did you try out your gun yet?" Momomi asked, detaching the gun from her suit.

"Yes. Didn't do much, though. Could help me find my way in the dark, though."

"Did you try _pointing_ it at someone?"

Kaname hadn't thought of that. "Trying to be a smart-ass?"

"Being a smart-ass," Momomi smirked, and she aimed and pressed a random button when Kaname wasn't ready. Her leg was immobile, unable to move.

"What happened?" Momomi asked, as surprised as Kaname was.

"I can't move my leg," Kaname said through her teeth, and Momomi sweatdropped and gave her a sheepish smile.

"Sorry about that."

For a few minutes, Kaname and Momomi had fun freezing each other in different places, and after a while, Amane joined them.

"Let's freeze a few people," Amane said, the first few words she'd said that day. Apparently, she had been practicing as well.

"Are we allowed to?" Kaname asked, looking to the entrance, thinking that Shion might be watching them.

"Why would they give them to us if we weren't?"

That convinced both Kaname and Momomi, and after about a half an hour, every girl besides the three were frozen. The three girls were laughing and jeering and exchanging high-fives until Shion came in, smiling at them.

"I see a few of you have learned how to use your equipment already, that's good." Shion pressed a control on the device she was holding, and each frozen girl drifted back to the handhold. She went to them, tapping each girl on the shoulder until they were all unfrozen. Some were complaining that it wasn't fair, that they weren't ready...blah blah blah.

"Well, why weren't you ready? You had the same amount of time as them."

The rest of the day went by smoothly. Kaname and Momomi were assigned to be partners, which was fine with the both of them, and they went through most of the maneuvers that the three girls had learned on their own, and Kaname spent the rest of the day with her new friends, talking and laughing and making jokes like the other kids. She didn't really feel different anymore, she felt wanted now.

--

A few weeks later, Kaname got a shock. Amane came to her bed one morning as Kaname was fiddling around with her desk.

"You have a transfer," Amane said, handing her a slip of paper. Kaname read it:

KENJOU KANAME

ASSIGNED GIRAFFE ARMY

COMMANDER HANAZONO SHIZUMA

CODE YELLOW YELLOW ORANGE

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

NO POSSESSIONS TRANSFERRED

"A...a transfer?" Kaname sputtered, reading the slip of paper over again. Amane shrugged.

"It's orders from Colonel Graff. Shion told me to give it to you."

Kaname trembled slightly. She'd just started to make friends, they were getting along so well, and now she had to leave them. Mostly, she would miss Momomi. And as though on cue, she bounced into the room with a smile on her face, but it faded as she saw Kaname's expression.

"What happened, Kana?" she asked, climbing onto the bed with her. It was the name she called her now, and even though the events were heartbreaking, Kaname couldn't help but mentally smile. She gave Momomi the sheet of paper, and her eyes narrowed as she read.

"That's insane! They don't transfer a kid into an army until they're nine! And I heard Shizuma-sama is hardcore."

Kaname shook her head and sighed, her chest was getting heavier and heavier by the second, and she let out a staggering breath. "I can't do this...I can't be part of an army. I haven't learned enough yet..."

"Don't worry," Momomi said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "If Shizuma-sama chews you out, I'll be down there to give her a good ass-beating."

"Me too," Amane chimed in.

Kaname nodded and tried to smile at them, but couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she gave Momomi and Amane a hug, and left the room. She looked at the wall, found the three dots with the colors yellow yellow orange, and followed the ribbon that lit up the path. It was a long way until the Miator kids' rooms, and she stood in the doorway of the room. The girls there towered over her, most of them were over ten years old. The youngest was almost nine, and she was still bigger than her.

"Ho, what do we have here? A launchy?" one of the girls asked.

"I was sent here," Kaname said, and another girl ran to the bed next to Kaname.

"Boss, there's a launchy here!"

The long, silver-haired girl that Kaname had seen earlier rose from her bed to look Kaname up and down, as though x-raying her. Her eyes pierced Kaname's body in a million places, like tons of burning needles.

"Are you lost?" she asked, her voice was ice-cold and soft. Kaname handed her the slip of paper, trying not to tremble, trying to act strong in her presence.

Shizuma read the paper and narrowed her eyes. "Wait, wait, wait. I thought I was being sent a new _soldier_, not a little kid. They must have gotten the name wrong or something."

A few of the girls laughed and Kaname's jaw set. "You're not too much older than me."

"Shut up! Who gave you permission to talk, little launchy? You think you can smart-talk me and get away with it? You think you're bad-ass now, since you're in an army? Well, listen up, kid. You're not, you got me? Have you ever been in a toon? Have you ever carried out a joint exercise?"

Kaname didn't understand what she was talking about, so she shook her head. Shizuma sighed and rubbed her temples, as though this was causing her much frustration.

"Listen. I don't care if they say you're smart, I don't care. You're a small, microscopic cell here. But that isn't going to bring me down, oh no. Because whether they give us pinheaded launchies like yourself, we're still one of the best armies here. And I don't want you going and screwing that up. So you're not going to participate in any battles while you're in this army. You're going to sit quietly in a corner of the room until the battle is over. You're not to fire your weapon at anyone. Got it?"

Kaname nodded. Momomi wasn't wrong, this Shizuma girl was hardcore.

"Come off it, Shizuma," one girl said, and Shizuma snapped her head in her direction. Kaname was astounded. She never would have talked to Shizuma that way, if she was a true member of the army. "I mean, if they're giving us shorties like her, then they obviously think she could be a damn good solider. Give her a chance."

Shizuma stared at the girl, then looked back to Kaname, who was trying not to look hopeful. Then Shizuma sighed. "Fine, all previous commands canceled as of now. I suppose having forty able-bodied soldiers makes up for having one pinhead."

And so Kaname's first few days of being a soldier started. She learned quickly that if you stayed out of the way of the commander, you wouldn't get into any trouble. Shizuma executed her orders and commanded her soldiers with such grace that Kaname had a hard time keeping up. And that caused her to get jostled by the older girls in the army, which eventually led her to be commanded to hold onto the railings for the remainder of the battles. It took her a few weeks to get used to being in an army, and she saw Momomi as much as she could. She worked on studying the maneuvers of her fellow soldiers and sometimes they even helped her get on-track. Soon, she was, what Shizuma called them, an able-bodied soldier.

Her first real battle was a month after she had been assigned to her army. She was to be fighting Rat Army, commanded by Shion, her old launch guard. People of all different schools were put in the same armies, so she wasn't surprised when many girls entered the Battle Room that morning. However, she was surprised to see Momomi coming out of the enemy gate.

"Hey look, it's her," Shizuma said, apparently amused as she watched Kaname staring at Momomi with a saddened expression. "Traumatized that you have to fight against your lover?"

"Lover?" Kaname asked, looking at her and feeling very confused. A few of the older girls laughed and shook their heads, indicating that she would understand when she was older. Momomi spotted her from the other side of the room and smirked at her, and Kaname smirked back. They were friends, but in battle, on opposite sides of the room, they were enemies.

The different toons, A, B, C, D and E, moved in different maneuvers around the room, performing things and totally throwing the enemy off guard. Kaname herself was part of A toon, and so she and her fellow toon members attacked in a manuever that their toon leader, Miyuki Rokujou, had taught them. There were different types of obstacles that were drifting through the Null-G as well, to aid the people in the battle. Kaname learned how to use these at once.

Kaname was drifting off to a wall, about to push herself off to aim herself at a floating, star-shaped item near her, but she panicked as Momomi came near her and she flipped around, like she had done when she first started learning how to move. She grabbed the star with one hand and, as Momomi was shooting at her, she held it in front of her face. The laser was rebounded, and it hit Momomi square in the chest. Kaname took this as an opportunity and thrust the star at her, and it bounced off of Momomi's helmet and caused her to fly into a wall, rebound onto another wall, and caused her to soar away to the other side of the room.

Kaname smirked and eagerly tried to move as far away as possible. Momomi would have her neck for that later. Or more than that. She grabbed at the wall with her hand and tried to control her laughter. A few girls from the other armies were watching them as well. After a few minutes, Momomi came soaring back to her and Kaname almost hit her in the face with her toy pistol out of surprise.

"What the hell are you trying to do?!" Momomi shouted at her, and Kaname shrugged. This time, they shot at each other at the same time. The beams overlapped each other and sent both girls flying across the room at different directions, bouncing off of walls and, eventually, crashing into each other. The older girls laughed and watched them clumsily trying to do each other in, until the battle was over and Giraffe Army won. The army was on their side of the room, laughing and whooping.

"You know what?" Shizuma said, smiling for what Kaname thought was the first time since she met her, "I don't think I've ever had as much fun in a battle as I had today."

"Ditto! Kaname-san made it all worthwhile!" Miyuki said, her voice bright as well, and they all shouted "Giraffe!" and exited the Battle Room. The rest of the day was spent in euphoria, trodding down the corridors and smiling and laughing and slapping each other on the arm. Even Kaname was being allowed to join in the victory. Rat Army was also celebrating, but not because of the loss, but because of the very entertaining game.

At lunch, Kaname sat with Amane, who wasn't in an army yet, and Momomi joined them after a few minutes. They looked at each other for a long moment, then burst out laughing.

"I heard the news," Amane said, wiping her eyes. "You two made quite a commotion today."

Momomi smirked. "It was Kaname's fault. She threw a star at my head, then almost hit me with that stupid pistol!"

"Well, I didn't know that."

"And then, and then she crashed into me when we were flying!"

"You flashed me about five times, though," Kaname pointed out. "That's better than cheating by throwing something at a person's head."

"It's not cheating, it's just battling in a clever way. My head still hurts..." Momomi said, scratching her forehead.

"Want me to kiss it to make it better?"

"Har har."

Kaname smiled and continued to eat lunch with her friends. Battle School was becoming fun now, and interesting. But this all seemed a bit too sugar-coated. She knew that Battle School wasn't supposed to be all fun and games, that it was supposed to include hard work and discipline. _If this is all they can do,_ Kaname thought, _then I'm wasting my time even being here._ But she knew. She knew that they were only testing her, they were only testing how long she would think that this was all fun and games before she would break down. The only thing they didn't know was that Kenjou Kaname _could_ be broken. And she hoped to god that they didn't know how.


	4. Separation

Welcome to chapter 3! These chapters are coming out in record time this time around, and I'm really pleased with the rate I'm updating. It's like I'm coming out with a chapter every day instead of a chapter every ten days. I'm still not sure how long this will end up being, and there will be a few time jumps through a few chapters.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ender's Game or Strawberry Panic, or...I don't know. yurianimeotaku would marry Hofftailing in a very anime-ish way. Sorry, had to say it.

* * *

Chapter 3: Separation

The rest of the year at Battle School went by very smoothly, with a few exceptions. Kaname was transferred in and out of many armies, most alone, some with Amane, some with Momomi. Never with the two of them together. The teachers probably figured that Kaname couldn't have any distractions, and even though she killed herself for it, she agreed with them. Being with either Amane or Momomi would be a huge distraction. She'd probably be joking around.

Kaname turned nine when she was put in command of an army. She was sitting at her bed in Condor Army, the army that she was just recently put in, when one of her fellow army members walked in and handed her a sheet of paper. She said nothing else and left her. She blinked at the paper and read it:

KENJOU KANAME

ASSIGNED RAT ARMY

COMMANDER

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

CODE GRAY BLACK GRAY

NO EQUIPMENT TRANSFERRED

Kaname knew better to complain. They had done this to her before, when she had first been assigned to an army. But she still did not know if she was ready to command an army yet. She still had much to learn, she had to learn control, she had to learn how to not be so shy or lain back. She also needed to learn how to be a leader.

She left without a word to anyone, taking only her duffel bag and made her way to her army. No one would miss her. She touched the wall and followed the gray black gray of Rat Army to the room, and found her soldiers waiting for her. Some of them were older than her, and they instantly started talking and jeering and smirking and laughing. The younger students were silent, including a long-haired blond girl and the black-haired girl next to her. Looking at their size, they appeared to be launchies. Now that Kaname had been here for two years, she knew how to wheedle out the launchies from the veterans.

"Roll Call," Kaname said, in a voice that wasn't her own, that she didn't recognize. "Veterans to the back, newest soldiers to the front."

This caused a wide selection of murmurs. Usually it was done the other way around, and the room was filled with noise. She called out the names.

"Nanto Yaya. Konohana Hikari. Kitamura Yuki." They were all present. "May I see you three at the front?"

The three girls stood in front of her. The brunette-haired girl named Nanto Yaya showed the most defiance, and the girl next to her, whom was blond and named Konohana Hikari, was the most vulnerable. She could tell by the way they stood, and the looks in their eyes. Kitamura Yuki simply looked like a launchy who was ready to take any order she was given.

"You three are launchies, am I right?"

They all nodded. "Hai."

"Do you know why you are here in an army instead of with your launch group?"

Hikari and Yuki shook their heads, but Yaya remained motionless, staring un-blinkingly at Kaname. Kaname smirked a bit.

"Nanto seems to know why."

"They have us out of our launch groups because we're that damn intelligent," Yaya said hotly, as though she had been greatly offended.

"Well, a fart could have told me that." There was laughter in the room. What was she doing? She was being the same as Shizuma had been to her when she was first put into an army. "Listen to me, little launchy. If you think you can get through Battle School by smart-talking your commanders, you're in for a rude awakening."

"I've heard you did the same thing when you were a launchy," Yaya said defiantly. "Heard you were being a smart-ass, too."

Kaname walked up to Yaya and pushed her against one of the lockers. "Those days are done, little girl. I'm a commander now, I'm not some fart-eating launchy, got it? And I don't think I'm going to take your crap."

Yaya simply smiled at her, and Kaname turned away coldly and continued to take roll. What made her resent that girl so much? Was it because she was the very definition of defiant? Was it because she spoke the truth? Two years ago, when she was a launchy like Nanto, she would have been mortified if a commander had slapped her around like that. So why was Kaname doing it now? Because she knew that she was smart, she knew that she wouldn't care. The girl was obviously under-disciplined, probably came from a rich family with pompous, egotistic bastards that gave her everything she wanted. In the corner of her eye, she saw Nanto talking to Hikari, the small blond-haired girl, and she wondered for a second. The two girls were complete opposites. How could they be friends? Then she thought to herself: _Momomi and I used to be the same. The quiet one and the out-going one. The pretty one and the lesser-pretty one. They're going to walk the same path we did, the same path that we ARE walking. Our days at Battle School aren't over._

Once roll call was over, Kaname did what she though a commander should do, and walked them through basic training and explanations of the Battle Room's inner workings. On their first day of training, Kaname held back, had one arm hooked to the handhold and watched her younger students work on their flying. Hikari was the worst by far, she tightened her muscles as she flew and panicked, and her flight patterns were horrible. Nanto Yaya, to Kaname's dismay, was one of the best fliers in the room, went accurately from place to place in a manner of twenty minutes. And she was already making friends, whether it was because of her charming personality or because of her skills, Kaname didn't know. She also wonder how she, fresh out of her launch group, knew the maneuvers and the arm movements and the handling of her weapons and equipment in such a short time. It pissed Kaname off, and she didn't know why.

_They've brainwashed me,_ Kaname thought, smirking. _They've made me into people like Graff. They've made me a ruthless military commander right when I walked into that door, right when I met my new army. Before then, I was a nothing, even when I was walking down that corridor. But all of a sudden, my whole personality seems to have changed. Graff is probably proud of me._

After training was over, she instantly went to find Momomi, whom she hadn't talked to at breakfast because she was busy sleeping in. She found her sitting at a table with Amane, as usual, and they both looked up at her, smiling.

"So, you've returned, Commander," Momomi said jokingly, and Kaname rolled her eyes and sat down across from her, next to Amane.

"You've heard, then. Why are they doing this to me? I can't be a commander...all I do is yell at them."

"You're doing a good job, then. That's what all the commanders do nowadays."

"Ha ha."

"How was your first day as a big bad commander?"

Kaname told them about Yaya, told them about the training, and the way that she'd pushed Yaya into the locker in front of everyone. Momomi shook her head and Amane closed her eyes.

"Kana...what has gotten into you lately? I never thought you would act that way."

"Neither did I," Kaname said, hiding her face in her hands and ironing her face, sighing. She wasn't born to act this way, it wasn't what her foster parents taught her how to be. She was supposed to be nice, caring and friendly to others, not push them around to make them do her bidding. But, in a weird, twisted way...she enjoyed it, being in power, watching the children squirm under her gaze, being respected by the other commanders. She wasn't supposed to want any of that...but she did. And it was exactly what she got.

She spent the rest of the day in her quarters. Momomi was there with her until she had to do her regular studies. Kaname just submitted her papers and work directly to her teachers from her desk, and they fully accepted it. Kaname lay on her back on the bed next to Momomi later on in the day, her eyes closed, talking to her until she fell asleep. She had her own private room now, she didn't share with her soldiers, her army. She wasn't sure she wanted to.

One morning before breakfast, Konohana Hikari stepped into her room, looking very sheepish and her face completely puce. Kaname rolled her eyes and got up from her bed.

"What is it, soldier?" Kaname asked, and Hikari stumbled over her words before she finally said something.

"I...well...I..."

"You...what?"

"I forgot t-the code colors of the army..."

Kaname stared at her, and Hikari looked at her feet, almost in tears. Kaname shook her head and smirked.

"Is that so? The colors are gray black gray. Think of it like the colors of a rat, rats are gray, right?"

"Yes...?"

"There you go, then." And, as though on impulse, Kaname smiled at Hikari, and Hikari smiled back. As the girl left, Kaname thought that they developed some sort of bond of understanding. She also noticed something else. She couldn't be sarcastic when she was talking to her. There was something about the girl that made her smile, made her want to shower her with compliments and that nice, motherly voice that she never used with anyone before. But she knew that she couldn't do that. If the other girls found out about it, then Hikari would get iced for sure. So she just had to treat her just like everyone else.

Their first battle was against Condor Army a few weeks later, one of the armies that Kaname had once joined for a short period of time with Amane. At 0713, she got her soldiers up from bed, at 0730 she had them dress and shower, and at 0745 they had breakfast.

"Listen to me, guys," Kaname said as they were eating, and the table that they gathered at grew quiet. "Condor Army has a good amount of sharp shooters in their army. And they've got some good strategies, too. I would know, I've been in the army before. So all I ask of you is to give it your all, and don't hold back, either. We don't want them thinking that Rat Army are all just a bunch of sissys, got it?"

There were cheers of agreement at this, and Kaname led her army to the Battle Room, jogging down the corridors. She occasionally jumped up and touched the ceiling, and the rest of her army followed, jumping up and touching that spot.

Kaname filed her soldiers through the gate and arranged her toons and toon leaders. "We all know our positions, right? Remember, the enemy gate is _down_. You get through that gate, we win. Use the formations your toon leaders tell you, and _try_ not to get flashed, okay?"

The girls cheered "Hai!" and waited for the enemy to arrive. Condor came through the enemy gate, the commander was shouting orders at them while the soldiers nodded their heads and continued. The Battle Room dimmed and the battle began. Kaname turned to her army and made a gesture with her hands, and the toons automatically went out in five different directions. A toon flipped up, B toon pushed forward, C toon went left, D toon went right and E toon went down towards the enemy gate. Kaname had a theory that if the opposing army was too busy worrying about the enemy coming towards them, then they wouldn't think to protect their gate. And she was right, E toon was already going towards the gate. However, a few girls from the other army saw them and instantly flashed half of the girls. The only two left were a girl that Kaname didn't know the name of, and Hikari. The other girl didn't pay attention to Hikari, and since Hikari was so small, no other soldiers payed her any attention.

"Konohana-san! Go nova!" Kaname yelled, and the girls nearby giggled. Hikari looked up at Kaname, smiled, and pushed off of a star towards the enemy gate. She passed through it and the lights came on. The battle was over and they'd won.

Everyone came back to their own side of the Battle Room, laughing and whooping and shouting "Rat! Rat!" and clapping Hikari on the shoulders. Hikari looked absolutely flushed, and Yaya was getting praise too, because she had single-handedly frozen six Condor soldiers and disabled three. Overall, Kaname was impressed and happy at her soldiers' efforts, even though she didn't show it.

_Great,_ Kaname thought. _They even have me masking out my happiness now. They have me acting like how I did back at the orphanage._

"Nicely done, Rat Army!" one of the toon leaders said, and the girls cheered again. But a minute or two later, everything went silent and every eye was upon Kaname.

"Rat Army dismissed!" she said, and the girls filed out of the Battle Room, Kaname bringing up the rear. As she turned a corner, she almost ran into Colonel Graff, who was looking almost as though he was waiting for her.

"Beautiful first battle as a commander, Kenjou," he said, smiling a bit. Then his face became serious. "Come talk with me in my office for a bit, I want to discuss something."

Kaname blinked a bit. One of her toon leaders called to her. "Oi! What's the holdup?"

"Go on without me!"

Kaname followed Graff into a corridor she never ventured through before, palmed a decoder that kept the children out, and opened a door that revealed a small office. Graff sat down at the chair and pointed to another seat.

"Sit down."

Kaname sat, looking up at him and feeling incredibly small. "What did you make me come here for?"

"To talk. How do you like Battle School so far? Have any friends?"

She blinked at him in disbelief. This couldn't be the only thing that he wanted. He was probably warming her up for a big speech or something. "I only have Momomi and Amane."

"How much time do you spend with them?"

"Well, not much anymore, but I used to spend time with Momomi a lot."

"So much that you two would even share the same bed while you were in different armies?"

Kaname paused for a moment, staring at him. "How do you know that?"

"The uniforms that you wear can track each student here at Battle School to their exact location. We've been watching you two for quite a while. You haven't gone a day without some sort of interaction with her since the first day of Battle School."

"So?"

"I'm just saying, keep your guard up. These people at Battle School, they forget about their friends easily. Don't get too attached, alright? You're going to be commanding a fleet some day, and you can't be worrying about whether your friends like you or not."

Kaname blinked a bit and sighed, looking at her knees. "Why is everyone making such a big deal about her? One day, on my first battle, my commander Shizuma-sama called her my 'lover', and I don't get it."

Graff seemed a bit amused and crossed his arms. "You're a bit too young to know what that means."

She seemed to sigh, looking frustrated and crossing her arms as well. What was this whole "lover" thing, anyway? Men and women were supposed to be lovers, not...

Graff raised an eyebrow at her and shook his head, laughing. "Kids these days. Anyways, Momomi isn't what I brought you here to talk about. It's your parents."

Kaname's back stiffened. "My foster parents?"

"Your real parents. You don't know this, but you've been in their presence for the six years you were down on Earth, almost every single day since you turned five and started going to school. You were in second grade when you were five, correct?"

Kaname nodded at him, but the words that he was saying wasn't clearly registering in her brain. Her parents...she hadn't seen her parents her whole lives, did not know what they looked like, was not sure if they were even alive...why was Graff talking to her about her parents?

"Sir, I don't understand what this has to do with my parents..."

"Your parents are far closer to you than you think. We had their permission to bring you up here to Battle School. They are the reason your monitor was taken out so late, they wanted you to be here. They want you to be trained to deal with the buggers, you know. They're out in space right now, science teachers at the Command and Tactical Schools. Odds are that you'll meet up with them sooner or later. You'll recognize them when you see them."

Kaname's insides turned to ice within ten seconds. She was shivering, she wanted to cry, but not in front of Graff. So she swallowed down her tears, closed her eyes and slowly counted to ten in her mind before calming down.

"Look, just because they gave you up to an orphanage doesn't mean that they don't love you. They believed that you should have been able to wait for a little while, until you were old enough to go to Command School, to find out the truth. They wanted you to have a happy childhood."

"You call me a child?!" Kaname suddenly exploded, walking up to his desk and slamming her hands. "You call someone who pits kids against each other in battle a child? These aren't children who go to this school, Colonel Graff. You raising monsters!"

"I'm raising soldiers, Kenjou," Graff explained, a very calm look on his face, while Kaname huffed exasperatedly and paced the room. "You are still, according to the laws of your birth state, a child. A ward of the state, mind you. Property of the I.F. And in order for you to become a great Commander, to command our fleets one day, to lead us into battle...you have to be strong and you can't hold anything back. You have to go through suffering and pain and loss and frustration and anger...and every other horrible feeling you could possibly imagine. Though you may not consciously know it, you've gone through most of those feelings already. But they'll be bigger and badder and more prone to destroy you from the inside out. Which is why you need training."

"I need to be trained to be a robot, is what you're basically saying," Kaname said, throwing herself back into her chair and staring Graff deep in the eyes.

"No. You have to be taught how to deal with it."

A few weeks after Graff made his speech, Kaname turned ten, and got a huge surprise. Her army was ready and dressed fifteen minutes before the set time, and when she entered her army's quarters for morning practice, they yelled "Happy Birthday!" at her.

"How did you know?" Kaname said, unable to contain the smile etched on her face.

"Your birthday came up on the main computer. Hikari hacked into the system and checked your birth information," Yaya said, looking to Hikari, who was bright red now.

Kaname blinked at her and smirked. "Not too hot in the Battle Room, but a whiz at computers?"

Hikari shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "I suppose so."

Kaname celebrated with her army for a few minutes, then she ordered them into the Battle Room immediately. Even though she had to go back to her commanding duties, she was still happier than she had been the whole time she'd been at Battle School, and that was saying something.

And it didn't end there, either. Later on in the day, during lunch, Amane and Momomi hailed her.

"So, turned ten today, huh?" Momomi said, smiling at her and ruffling her hair. Kaname shook her head and smiled.

"Everyone knows."

"Of course, you're one of the more famous names around here, now. It's almost like you're Ender Wiggin, 'cept you're a girl."

They laughed at that. Ender Wiggin was long since dead, but his name still traveled around the world. Whenever anyone said the name "Ender", anyone on the world would know who they was talking about. Not even Mazar Rackham was as famous as Ender Wiggin was.

As Kaname was in her sleeping quarters that night, she noticed something on the desktop that she hadn't seen before. She could have sworn that it hadn't been there before, or she would have seen it. She poured over the desk-like computer every day. She wouldn't have skipped over it.

She clicked the small icon, shaped like a sword. A game came up, and Kaname was suddenly pixelated into a small player in a virtual world. It was a fantasy game. She sighed a bit, wondering if she should play. It was there as a game, just a game for recreation...right?

So she played. She moved her figure around, made it fight enemies and move through doors and do mini quests and missions set to her by NPC's, the Non-Playable Characters. She smiled a bit, it was fun and challenging for a few hours, but then she came to a very large giant, with a table in front of it and two drinks perched on top.

"Let's play a guessing game," the giant said. "Choose the right drink, and I'll take you to Fairyland."

Kaname chose a drink. Her character drank it, and exploded. The giant laughed. She was dead. Kaname frustratedly started over, took another drink from the opposite one. Her character's head blew up like a balloon, and the giant laughed again. She sighed a bit and tried one more time. Her character's brains gushed out of its ears, and the giant laughed.

She growled in frustration and threw the child-sized desk from her, fuming. It wasn't a fair game, she always chose wrong. She hated this, she hated Battle School and their stupid games. She wished she could go back home...but she couldn't, she had two more years of Battle School to go through before she had her first leave. Two more years of madness, two more years of battles, commanding. But in a way, Kaname didn't want to leave. She had Momomi and Amane here, her two best friends. If she had to leave them, it would kill her. She wouldn't want to go back to Earth, she would want to stay with them. Her two conflicting thoughts nagged at her for the rest of the day and most of the next day.

A few days later, Kaname was jogging down the halls and was suddenly stopped by Amane. She mentally flinched, she hadn't been talking to Amane since she had been made a commander. She hadn't been talking to Momomi for the past few days, either, simply sending messages through their desks. Amane practically pushed her against the wall.

"Kaname-sama." Sama. _Sama_. She'd have to talk with Momomi about this later.

"Ho, Amane."

"I've been sent to tell you...some girls are planning to kill you."

"Not surprised."

A lot of people had started hating Kaname since she became commander. It was only the end of her first of two years as a commander, and she was already high in the rankings. Rat Army hadn't lost a battle since she had became commander. In the standings for the top fifty soldiers, one would have to go down seventeen places to find a soldier that_wasn't_ from Rat. Even Hikari, whom still wasn't the best soldier that Kaname wanted her to be, was ranked number nine in the school-wide standings for her achievements in school. Yaya topped most of the soldiers at number three. And a lot of girls didn't like it at all.

"Kaname-sama, they can do it. They're bigger than us by about four years...four feet, I should say. You're going to get hammered into the ground if they get a hold of you."

"Then let them."

"Kaname-sama..."

"Stop calling me Kaname-sama! I can handle myself, alright?!"

"Don't you know who your friends are?!"

They glared at each other squarely, holding their ground. Amane was the first to leave, she turned on her heel and stormed down the hallway to a ladder that led to a higher level. Kaname huffed a bit and continued on her jog. About an hour later, when lunch was starting, she sat next to Momomi and Amane again, and of course, the girls who wanted to kill Kaname came back up in their conversation.

"I told you two, I can handle myself just fine," Kaname said, taking a sip out of her cardboard-boxed apple juice.

"My ass you can," Momomi muttered while chewing on her chicken nuggets. "They're huge, that lot."

Amane shrugged, looking at Kaname in the corner of her eye. "I tried to explain, but she wouldn't listen to me."

Kaname smiled at Amane, almost gently, and finished her child-sized plate. "I'm going to train in the Battle Room. See you guys later."

"Later." Kaname left, and Momomi and Amane looked at each other.

"Should we follow her?"

"Yeah, we should. She might get mad, though."

"I don't care, I don't want her to get hurt. Tell as many people from Rat Army as you can find, too."

"Roger that."

Amane went off to go find the rest of Rat Army, while Momomi followed Kaname well out of earshot.

It happened when Kaname was starting to change out of her regular uniform into her flash suit. She was untying her shoes when a shadow crept over her own, and she turned around while still sitting on the floor. They were three girls, they looked to be almost thirteen and were very much taller than her, almost by two feet.

"Ho," Kaname said nonchalantly, stopping the tying of her shoes and standing up straight, to give herself more level. The girls looked livid. Kaname smirked.

"Looking for a fight?" she asked jestingly, raising an eyebrow.

"Not looking for a fight," one of the girls said, while the other two just stared at her. "We just came to persuade you to fight fair."

"Fair?"

"Right. Fair. As in lose some now and then."

The other two laughed a bit, but Kaname shook her head.

"Obviously, you don't know what being in Battle School means. Do you think you were brought here and expecting people to play fair? If you ever get to command a fleet, do you think the Buggers are going to be fair? They'll blast your head open and drink your guts for dessert, I know, I've watched the vids."

That shut them up. One of the girls grabbed Kaname by the collar of her uniform and pinned her up against a wall, rather high. Kaname suddenly found herself mentally panicking, her mind whirring. She didn't like heights and she couldn't touch the ground.

"Listen, little girl. You might be a great commander and everything, but you're still just a little girl. And we can pound you to the ground faster than you can utter the world 'bugger'..."

"Gather!" a familiar voice said, and almost ten people circled the area in which the girls were quarreling. Amane, Hikari, Momomi, Amane and a few other girls from Rat Army were all in offensive stance, looking deadly, with their pistols in the air. They knew perfectly well that the pistols did not work outside of the Battle Room, but they could cause a great injury nonetheless. The older girls looked back at them, and the one holding Kaname painfully to the wall dropped her to the floor. Momomi ran to her to comfort her.

The leader of the group laughed. "Oh wow, this is super. Little kids forming a group to attack us. How cute." The other girls laughed, and a few more of them walked down the halls, older girls that Kaname knew.

"Problem?" It was Shizuma, followed by Miyuki, Shion and Chikaru. Shizuma looked to Kaname, noticed her position, then looked up at the girls and smiled. "Not bullying Kenjou, are you, Shafts?"

The girl muttered a slightly audible "No".

"Hm? I can't seem to hear you, Shafts," Shizuma said, with a deadly look in her eye. The older girl seemed to wither.

"No, ma'am!"

"Good," Shizuma said, and she and her friends walked down the hallway, beckoning the three girls to follow them. "I'm sure Colonel Graff would like to hear about your behavior."

Shafts growled her disapproval, then motioned her two friends to follow her. "This isn't over, Kenjou!" she said over her shoulder.

"I'd say it is," Shizuma said, and they disappeared. The girls from Rat Army cheered and slapped each other high-fives, and Momomi helped Kaname to her feet.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly, still looking concerned. Kaname nodded, clearing her throat. Momomi suddenly smirked at her.

"I told you. It's your ass next time." Momomi and Amane left Kaname, and though she wouldn't voice it allowed, it made her like Momomi a lot more. She looked to her army, who was still in their stance, and said "At ease." They lowered their pistols and watched her.

"You know, if we hadn't been here, you'd probably be dead meat," Yaya said, raising an eyebrow.

"I know, I know." Kaname smiled at them. "This...this is what an army is."

They all smiled and laughed, slapping each other high-fives, and Kaname left them, forgetting about her training. If anything, she just needed a break.

--

A few days later, Kaname got an urgent order from Major Anderson. She signed onto her desk in the morning, as usual, and found a message marching across the edges of her desk, and it wasn't from Momomi telling her to wake up. She instantly dressed into her uniform and jogged on towards Graff's office, waiting at the door since she didn't know the pass code. The door opened almost five seconds later, and she entered the room. She sat down without being told to, and Anderson spoke.

"Kaname. Kenjou Kaname. Congratulations."

Kaname blinked. "Did I win a prize?"

Anderson smirked. "Yes, you did. A one-way ticket away from Battle School. You're done here."

Kaname's eyes went wide. "Hey, that fight wasn't my fault, you can't ice me for..."

"We know," Graff said. "This isn't about the fight. You're being graduated a year early. You're moving on to Command School."

She glared at them, almost wondering if they were playing a trick on her. "No."

"No?" Anderson and Graff looked amused, they looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"No. You can't do that. In order to get to Command School, you need at least three years in either Tactical or Pre-Command school. I can't go straight to Command School..."

"Of course you can. You've already been graduated by the I.F. So technically, you're not supposed to be here right now. We're giving you a half an hour to be at the shuttle." Graff gave her a full piece of paper, it held the details of her transfer.

Kaname shook her head and didn't take it at first. She didn't want to go, not now, not when she had just started getting along with her soldiers, even Yaya...not when she still had Momomi here, not when she probably wouldn't see her again. She stared up at Graff and Anderson with glazed eyes, hating them for doing this to her.

Graff sighed. "Look, I know that you're probably cursing our names to hell right now, but it's for your own good. We want you to still have a childhood after this war is over. I promise you, it will be over before you're twelve."

"I have no childhood," Kaname said, and she stood up to leave. "I'll go get packed."

She snatched the paper into her hands and left Graff and Anderson, left them standing there. She sighed a bit and continued to walk until she entered her armies' room. She was instantly hailed by Yaya and Hikari.

"Ho, Commander! What's our assignment for today?"

Kaname shook her head. "I'm not your commander anymore. I've been transferred."

Hikari's eyes went wide. "To another army?"

"To Command School."

"Pre-command?"

Kaname looked down at the blond-haired girl. "Command." She left them, did not look up at their faces. It would live in her memories forever if she did.

She stepped into her room, though it wasn't her's anymore. She looked around for her duffel bag, all the things that she prized was held in there. There was nothing else she needed, she didn't need her desk. She packed a few of her regular uniforms in her duffel bag and stared around at the room. She sighed, Kaname still wasn't ready to leave. She'd had such fun in Battle School, besides the fighting. She'd met so many good people and had learned so much. But deep down inside her, she knew that she had to move on, for the good of the world.

So she stepped out of the room and walked down the hallways of Battle School, looking upon what had been her home for the past four and a half years. She waited for Graff to pick her up, and they went together towards the shuttle, all the while Kaname was silent.

Graff sighed a bit and put a hand on her shoulder. "Kaname, are you going to be okay?"

Kaname nodded silently and sighed, the only noise that she had made in the past twenty minutes.

"You still have fifteen minutes, you know."

Kaname looked up at Graff. She didn't have time to go all the way to the cafeteria to find Momomi and Amane. Then again, she didn't have to. The two girls ran up to her about three minutes later, red-faced.

"Ho," Kaname said, grinning at them. Instead of a hug from Momomi, she received a slap in the face.

"Hey, what was that for?!"

"You IDIOT! Yaya just came and told me that you're graduating! To Command School! How do you let them do this to you?! You said you'd never let them!"

Momomi was in hysteria, and Kaname sighed and rubbed her burning cheek. "There's nothing I can do about it. I have to do it, Momomi."

Kaname noticed Yaya and Hikari appearing next to Amane, but didn't pay any attention to them, just stared Momomi deep in the eyes. "I don't want to, Momomi. I really don't."

"Then WHY...-"

"Because the Earth needs me, Momomi! You don't understand, I'm the only person who can defeat the Buggers now."

Momomi blinked at her, then her sudden sobbing turned into bitter laughter. "Oh?! A ten-year-old is going to defeat a entire race, huh? Going out with a bang, right? I'm sure you go through this with all the kids who go to Command School, Colonel Graff, you give them ideas..."

"Nope," Graff said, smiling warmly at Momomi. "Only with Ender Wiggin."

Momomi fell silent, looking up at Graff and looking back to Kaname. She knew it had to be serious now, no one besides Ender Wiggin had gone straight from Battle School to Command School.

"But Kaname has something different than Ender Wiggin, though, besides the fact that she's a girl."

Kaname looked up at Graff, curiously tilting her head. "And what's that?"

"He didn't have four people track him down when he graduated."

They all laughed at that, and Graff's wristwatch beeped. "Oh, that's our deadline, Kaname. We should get going."

"Yeah," Kaname said, and she turned around to wave her friends goodbye, but Momomi ran up to her and hugged her instead. It took a long moment before she had the heart to push her away, and Momomi wiped her face.

"I suppose you are a big bad Commander now," she said thickly.

Kaname shrugged. "I guess."

"We're not going to recognize each other the next time we see each other."

"Of course I will. Your face is so scary that I can't think what other person would have it."

"Very funny."

They smirked at each other and gave each other a high-five, and Kaname turned to Amane and hugged her as well. She shook Yaya's hand and Hikari practically jumped on her to give her a hug, and Kaname patted the young girl's head, smiling.

"You know, you could be a great soldier one day."

"Doubt it," Hikari said gravely. "You've seen me, I'm terrible."

"Maybe," Kaname said, smirking. "But you're going to have to be a great soldier someday. And you're not going to be able to hack through it," she said, winking, and Hikari flushed. Satisfied, Kaname walked over to the shuttle, entered it and waved out at her friends. They waved back, and the shuttle door finally closed.

"You know," Graff said as they entered the air and started the voyage, "I don't think I've ever seen anything that beautiful."

"Stuff it, Colonel Graff," Kaname said, unblushingly. "I thought I'd say something dramatic."

"Nice, leave in style. I like it. So, this voyage is only going to take about a week in Earth time, but it will feel like a few months here in space. Think you're up to it?"

"Let's do this."

Kaname sighed and looked out the window. The others were still outside, Yaya and Hikari were leaving. Momomi, however, hung back to get a last look at the shuttle, and then moved back into the Battle School with Amane.

"How long before they get to Command School as well?"

"Not long."

"I hope you're wrong."

"Why's that?"

"I can't bear to see Momomi again. I might cry. By the way...aren't you the administrator of Battle School? Shouldn't you be going back?"

"Nope. They've recommissioned me. I have other duties."

"So you're going with me?"

"All the way."

And Kaname smiled a bit. She was glad to have a friend to accompany her on her long voyage. Well, she wasn't sure if Colonel Graff counted as a friend yet. She usually didn't make friends with adults, she thought they were all cheap. But he was the only one, besides the pilot, who was with her. And so that made all the difference in the world.


	5. Puberty and Command School

No introduction today. Nothing to say, really, except that I hope you enjoy the show! I mean...the chapter. Hehe.

* * *

** Chapter 4: Puberty and Command School**

As Graff said, the voyage would take very long, almost a year and a half after they visited Earth. Kaname poured over the contents of the ship's library on the few months' voyage towards Earth. The library was extensive, and Kaname could find books on any subject she wanted. By the time she was eleven-and-a-half, she had already gone perusing through the adult novels, and once found one on relationships and took it to Graff, who usually sat in the cockpit with the pilot, but sometimes came to check on her.

"Colonel Graff."

"Hmm?"

"What's this book about?"

Graff turned to look at her, took the book in his hands and examined it. He blinked without an expression and handed it back to her. "You sure you should be reading something like that?"

Kaname blinked, tilting her head. "Why not?"

Graff sighed and waved her off. "Go read it then, since you want to, I'm not stopping you. But you might wanna wait until you're..."

"FINE!" she huffed, and stomped off to find another book to read. The pilot looked behind him to see what the ruckus was about, and Graff shrugged.

"Girls."

Kaname decided to read whatever they had on the Buggers, which was a lot, and it took her a few weeks to get through all of the books. She studied the history of their kind, how they came to be on Earth, how they were exiled to the planet Eros, and their technology. Since she didn't understand most of it, she went to Graff as a last resort and asked him about them.

"You want to know about the Buggers?" Graff asked, looking surprised.

Kaname nodded. "Hai. You see, I need to know the enemy as well as possible. There is no greater teacher than the enemy, you know. Only the enemy can tell you what the enemy will do next in battle."

"Where do you learn these kinds of things?" Graff asked, looking at Kaname as though she were another being. Kaname just stared at him.

Graff sighed and started explaining about the Buggers. "The Buggers are insect-like human beings. I'll show you pictures later. They could have just as easily developed on Earth, if things went a different way a billion years ago. Some people think that they're our ancestors. But that's not saying much, considering the fact that our ancestors could have easily been squirrels as well." Graff smirked.

"Well, it's saying something," Kaname said.

"Ah, but squirrels didn't build starships that attack our own, did they? Gathering nuts is a lot more simple than making whole colonies in the heart of Saturn's rings."

"They do that?"

"Oh yeah. They're bigger than you think."

"Not from what I've seen in pictures back when I was in Kindergarten."

"They don't tell you anything in Kindergarten. They teach you how to piss in Kindergarten."

It was Kaname's turn to smirk now. "I did a whole report on the inner workings of each planet on the Solar System, including twenty-one moons, when I was in Kindergarten."

Graff blinked a bit. "Damn, you were a nerd."

Kaname narrowed her eyes. Graff sighed and continued explaining about the Buggers. "The Buggers can probably see the same color spectrum that we humans can. However, their five senses are very trivial to them, they don't care about them as much as we do, they don't rely on it. Of course, there's no way we can be certain. We can't tell how they communicate, that's the odd thing. They have no communication devices in their starships and Mobile Suits...robot-like vehicles that will probably roam the Earth if the Buggers get through the atmosphere. No radios or anything that could emit a signal."

"They communicate from ship to ship. I've seen the vids...they talk to each other."

"Very true. But...body to body, and mind to mind. It was the most important thing we could learn from them. Their communication is instantaneous. Not even light speed is a barrier. When Mazar Rackham destroyed their invasion fleet, everything was shut off. No time for a signal. Just gone."

And Kaname remembered the vids. The vids of the Buggers lying dead at their posts.

"We humans then realized it was possible. To communicate faster than the speed of light or sound. And we did it."

"Well, then how is it possible?"

"I can't even start to describe the physics to you, you're not that educated yet, smart you may be. Well, what matters is that we built the ansible. The actual name for it is Philotic Parallax Instantaneous Communicator, but I suppose someone dug out the word ansible from an old book, and the name stuck."

"It means that ships can talk to each other even if they are all the way across the solar system," Kaname said smartly, smiling at him.

"It means that ships can talk to each other even if they are all the way across the _galaxy_," Graff corrected her. "The Buggers can do it without the machines."

"So," Kaname started, "if they knew about the defeat even before it happened, I figured that they probably only found out they lost a short time after."

"It just keeps people from panicking. By the way, these things are not for your little ears to be hearing. If you ever decide to leave the I.F. Command someday. Before the war is over, I mean"

Kaname glared at him. "I can keep secrets."

"It's said that people under twenty-five are considered a security risk. And you're nowhere near twenty-five yet, are you?"

"What's all the secrecy for, anyway?"

"Because we've taken a lot of risks, Kenjou. And we're not planning to take anymore. As soon as we had that working ansible, we placed it in our best starships and blasted them to attack the Buggers' home systems."

"So I suppose we aren't waiting for the Fourth Invasion?"

"We _are_ the Fourth Invasion."

"So we're attacking them? How come nobody says anything about it? Everyone thinks that we have a massive amount of warships just waiting..."

"None, Kenjou. We're quite defense-less here."

"What if they send a fleet to attack us?"

"Then we're all dead," Graff said cheerfully. "We haven't seen a sign of a fleet though, not a single sign."

"Maybe they gave up and decided to leave us alone."

"Maybe?! Maybe?! You've seen the vids, Kenjou. Do you think the human race will just let them give up and leave us alone?"

And Kaname tried to size up the amount of time that had gone by. "And some of the ships have been traveling for a while. Even since after Ender Wiggin's time."

"A long while. Some a bit shorter time, some even shorter. But...listen to me, Kenjou...every single ship we built is going out there to the Bugger homeland. They're almost there, too. They'll be in combat range within a few months. Our timing was good, you see. However, they're armed pretty well...they've got some weapons that we've never seen or heard of before."

"How long until they arrive here?"

"Within the next five years. We have everything under control. We're just missing one thing, and that's a commander."

_Me..._Kaname thought, closing her eyes. _They want me to be ready in five years... _"What if I'm not ready? There's no chance..."

"Then we're dead," Graff said, once again cheerfully. "Of course, we'll work with whoever we have left."

Kaname's heart was at ease...but only for a moment. "Who else do you have?"

"No one."

She sighed a bit, looking at her knees. Only two years ago, she was a regular kid, just going to Battle School like all of the other kids. Now she was supposed to help save the world. In five years, in five short years...And she didn't know anything yet. "I'll be sixteen in five years."

"Going on seventeen. You'll almost be an adult by then, older than Ender Wiggin was when he led us through the Third Invasion. But we don't have him anymore. He's gone."

"Where is he? Ender Wiggin?"

"No one knows. Could be dead. Could be anywhere in space. Doesn't know anything about these invasions. They didn't let him come back to Earth after the Third Invasion."

Kaname sighed and was spaced out for the rest of the conversation they had, not really speaking and not really thinking. She thought of Ender Wiggin, how horrible he must feel not to be in touch with the present going-ons in the world around him. She wondered what it would be like, to be separated from her own kind for the rest of her life...

They landed on the planet Earth a while later, somewhere in an abandoned field in England, Graff had told her. The sunlight almost blinded her. There were little particles floating around in the air, and she sneezed and wanted to go back indoors. She was so used to being locked up in a dome in space that she did not adjust to her Earth life. She wanted to go back to the Battle School, where she had Momomi and Amane and Yaya and Hikari and the rest of her friends...They were still up there while she was down here suffering.

--

Kaname's "vacation" to home lasted more than a year, in which time Graff was able to buy himself and Kaname "civilian" clothing and was able to fit into the regular, human life again, and by which time Kaname experienced puberty. It hit her like a truck, and it came with immense pain, bitching for no reason, and a lot of sleeping.

One day, as Graff was on the phone with Major Anderson, they discussed it.

"She's not taking puberty too well," Graff explained.

"No girl ever does. How is she doing right now?"

"She's in her hotel room sleeping. Again. For the third time today. Thing is, there's a problem. She doesn't seem interested in going on with her education at the moment. She's like a hermit right now, doesn't want to go outside or anything. I told her it only happens once a month, but she's not listening to me..."

"How old IS she, anyway?"

"Twelve, almost thirteen."

"Already?!"

"Turned twelve just a few weeks ago. I know."

The phone went silent for a few seconds.

"Can we get someone to bribe her into coming back to her studies?"

"Like we did with Ender and Valentine Wiggin? Probably. Who do you think we can get who can graduate early?"

"Who did she spend most of her time with? Up here in Battle School, I mean."

"That girl Momomi Kiyashiki."

"Then let's send her down there. I'm sure she'd be happy to see her, anyway."

"The question is, how are you going to get them both back up there in space? They might enjoy Earth life too much."

Anderson sighed. "Well. You're just going to have to make sure they know how important it is for those two to be up there."

"Alright. Send her down."

A few weeks later, Graff walked into Kaname's room, shaking her awake. Kaname sat up, her eyes unfocused.

"What?" she asked, a sort of cold edge in her voice now.

"A visitor is coming to see you. She'll be off her shuttle in a few hours. Want to go meet her?"

"Who is it?"

"Someone you know."

Kaname looked at him suspiciously again, and then she got out of bed. "Out," she demanded, glaring at him.

Graff went and Kaname got dressed, and they walked together down the street towards one of the restaurants in England. They ordered tea at first, and Kaname kept looking at Graff, wondering what he was up to.

"Colonel Graff."

"Hmm?"

"It's her, isn't it?"

"Her who?"

"You know who I'm talking about!"

Graff just smiled at her, and Kaname huffed and sipped at her tea. A couple of minutes later, the door opened, and a familiar face followed by another I.F. agent entered the room. The girl had honey-colored hair and hazel eyes...

"Ho," Kaname said, nonchalantly, greeting her.

"Ho," Momomi said back, sitting at the table across from her. "You grew."

"You shrunk."

"Very funny."

"Hey, how are the others doing up there? Back in space, I mean."

"They're doing fine."

There was an awkward silence after those few empty words, in which they stared at each other. Graff and the military man, Kaname later learned was named Dink Meeker, a former student from Battle School, stared at each other as well.

"Hungry?" Kaname suddenly asked, holding up a menu.

"Like a fat guy at McDonald's. I asked Colonel Meeker how much we were allowed to eat during the flight, and he only said three meals a day."

Kaname rolled her eyes and helped Momomi read the English on the menu, and they both ended up ordering the same thing.

"So how have you been?" Momomi asked, twisting the spaghetti around her fork over and over again, not really paying attention to it.

Kaname scowled at her. "Miserable for the last few months I've been here."

"Miserable? What's Colonel Graff been doing to you?"

"Ever heard of something called 'puberty'?"

Momomi shuddered. "I've heard the stories. Is that why you're so much taller than I remember?"

Kaname shrugged, chewing on some garlic bread. "I suppose so. For the first few days, I thought I was dying. Stupid Earth atmosphere. You only got here about two hours ago, right?"

"Yeah. I'm still disoriented from the disembark."

"Eh. It'll pass."

They talked, they ate, they laughed about stupid things. All the while, however, Dink and Graff kept looking at each other as though they were expecting something. What were they expecting? Well, whatever, it didn't matter to Kaname at the current moment.

They left the restaurant an hour and a half later and ventured back to the hotel room, where Momomi and Kaname took pleasure in flipping through the television channels until a very interesting show came up.

"Momomi-chan."

"Hai?"

"Have you ever seen Family Guy?"

Momomi went silent. "No, I never have."

They spent almost three hours watching it. A show with a fat guy, his wife, a weird-looking daughter, a teenage son, a talking dog, a very hostile-looking baby and a man who said "Giggity" every now and then was very entertaining, especially Quagmire, whom easily turned into Kaname's favorite cartoon character of all time. Even though neither her or Momomi understood his jokes, much less Momomi, who had just turned twelve the previous week.

They spent a week traveling through England, seeing many different sites and eating a lot of English food. Momomi was also able to bush up on her English while she was there, and she was very good at it. As they took a buoy down one of the rivers, they lay next to each other and looked at the sky.

"This week has been awesome," Kaname said, closing her eyes. She didn't know when she'd had so much fun, except for the first time she and Momomi had battled against each other in Battle School.

"It has," Momomi said, with that same relaxed tone in her voice, and she sighed. "Kana. You do know that you have to go back up there. Soon. Before the Buggers come down here and blast our heads open and drink our guts for desert."

Kaname could have sworn she'd heard that before. Oh, right. She had been the one who'd said that to her attackers the day of that fight. She closed her eyes and didn't say anything, and she heard Momomi sigh.

"Look, Kana. It's not like you'll be alone. You'll have Graff, you'll have me. I'm going back on the shuttle flight with you. They couldn't talk me out of it. They wanted us on separate flights. Why don't you want to go back into space?"

Kaname didn't want to answer. Partly because she didn't know what she would say to her. And partly because she knew what she would say to her, and was afraid to admit it to herself.

"I...I'm not ready, Momomi-chan. They...they want me to be ready to fight the Buggers by the time I'm sixteen. And I don't know anything. I don't know how to command a whole fleet. I don't know the Bugger's movements and maneuvers. I haven't had the time to study them...for myself, I mean. Graff explained a bit about the Buggers on our way here to Earth, but...I have to study it for myself, I just can't do it."

"You can," Momomi said. Kaname knew she was looking at her, but didn't turn to face her or open her eyes. "Think about it, Kana. If they didn't think you could do it, they would have given up on you by now. They would have given up on Ender Wiggin as well. But they didn't give up on Ender Wiggin, and they sure as hell aren't going to give up on you. You're too important to be here on Earth right now."

"I've been here for more than a year. Living in a hotel, Momomi-chan. Living off of restaurants, fast food and room service. I like it here...I'm not ready to go back..."

"You have to be ready, Kana. It's the only way the world will end up safe instead of blown up. They needed Ender Wiggin, and he kept us safe through the Third Invasion. We needed Mazar Rackham, and he kept us safe through he first two invasions. Now we need you."

Kaname sighed a bit, trying to make Momomi understand. "Momomi-chan. I can't handle a whole fleet of soldiers against the Bugger ships. They have way more technology, they're smarter than us."

"I know. But they don't have any organized form of government, and we do. Listen, Kana...we can't stay on Earth forever. It needs us to be there to help it, they don't have anyone else besides us kids. We are their only hope. Ender Wiggin made sure we had a chance to show adults what children can do. And now you have the chance to remind them. Look, we were put in Battle School for a reason, everyone up there was. And that reason was to become a great soldier."

"What if they make me stay in space like they did to Ender Wiggin?" Kaname asked, seemingly horrified. Kaname couldn't even think of spending her life in space. Momomi smiled at her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll be there. You have nothing to worry about."

They looked at each other for a short moment. But the short moment seemed much longer as they examined each other's eyes. Momomi knew she had just convinced Kaname to go back into space, and she would not soon forgive her for it.

--

The trip to Eros was indeed very long. They made it to the planet four days after Kaname turned fourteen. Of course, no one knew her birthday besides Graff and Momomi.

Momomi and Kaname hated Eros as soon as they arrived. There was a large population of people in Eros, of course, but it was not crowded with people like Battle School had been. And there was another complication, as well. All of the faces Kaname saw were strangers. She didn't know anyone, and never had time to get to know anyone. They simply remained faces etched into her brain.

She and Momomi spent their time studying the Battle Simulators. They were games, much like the games they'd had back in the arcades at Battle School, but they were more complex and had a lot of distracting graphics, lights and sounds. It was fun, it was challenging. It was as though Kaname was getting her first challenge since Battle School.

There was one thing that irked her nerves, though. She and Momomi weren't allowed to be in the same room.

"Why not?!" Kaname asked Graff, frustrated, as Graff explained how to get to their rooms. Graff simply smiled.

"I have no comment at the moment. Wait a couple of years, you'll understand."

They rarely ever saw each other during classes, because they had been put on completely different study paths. Kaname was to be focusing on Commanding tactics, while Momomi worked on Strategical Reasoning in battle. They saw each other at meals and the game room, of course. But Kaname found herself wanting to be around Momomi more, almost longing for it, to the point where she would lay up in her bed at night, staring at the ceiling, just thinking about her. It was odd, it was confusing...but it felt right.

Kaname woke up bright and early one morning, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Her eyes were blurry and she couldn't really talk, not so early in the morning. She yawned again, scratching the back of her head, and looked around her room. She was surprised to see a man sitting on her floor, probably in his late fifty's, just sitting, watching her. How long had he been there?

She examined him for a moment, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes. She decided to ignore him and got out of bed, took a red-and-gold striped uniform from one of her drawers, and headed off to the bathroom to shower and change. When Kaname walked out, fully dressed, she noticed the man still sitting there. She shook her head and walked over to the door and turned the doorknob. It was locked.

Kaname sighed, frustrated, and looked to the middle-aged man. "Alright. Why is the door locked?"

The man didn't say anything, just looked at her with that dead look.

Kaname rolled her eyes. "Look, if you're here, you might as well talk to me, or you can leave right now. I don't want intruders barging in on me when I'm sleeping, you know. People will think you're a weird guy." She smirked at him, and he had no comment for her. So she growled and went to practicing her lunges. She jumped on one foot and propelled herself across the room with the force. She practiced punches, kicks, dodges. One of her lunges brought herself closer to the man, and unexpectedly, he grabbed her foot and threw her to the ground with no effort at all.

Kaname quickly scrambled to her feet, red-faced and panting heavily. Frustrated even more, she threw a punch at the man. He quickly blocked it, grabbed her wrist and threw her across the room into the wall, where she made a small dent with the back of her head. She groaned in pain and got up, just in time to see the man charge at her, grabbing the front of her shirt and pulling her upward, so that she was pushed to the wall off of her feet.

Kaname panicked, she thought of the time in Battle School when the bigger girl had done that to her, and she started kicking and thrashing around. The man dropped her and she composed herself.

"Worthless," the man said in a raspy voice, as though he had just woken up himself. "Worthless. Your reactions are weak. You think you're going to be a Commander with that kind of sluggishness? You fight like a Bugger in human clothing."

Even though his voice was wispy and weak-sounding, his words were cold. Kaname growled and charged at him, only to be smacked in the face. She fell back onto the ground, nearly crying in pain. The man drew her arms back so they popped, and she let a few tears out. Kaname shook her head and turned around, throwing many punches and kicks at him as she could. She was worn out within five minutes, on the ground throbbing. The amazing Kenjou Kaname, the most popular alumni in Battle School, beaten by this decrepit old man.

"Fine...fine," Kaname said through pants. "You win...I give up."

"Since when..." the man asked coldly, "do you have to tell the enemy that he has won?"

Kaname fell bitterly silent. "Kenjou. You may be Japanese, you may have a lot of determination and knowledge and education behind you, but your physical reactions to others is horrible. You're going to have to be taught how to handle things physically, not just mentally. That is why I am here. I'm going to be your mentor from now on, not Graff. You will play by my rules and my schedule, no one else's. Do you understand?"

Kaname nodded, and looked curiously at the man. Well...looked to the point where her neck didn't throb at a single movement. How did this old man, who looked like he could be blown away by a gust of wind, beat her so quickly?

"You must predict the maneuvers of the enemy, Kenjou," the man said, almost as though he'd read her mind. "There is no better teacher than the enemy."

Kaname smiled deviously. "Does that make you my enemy?"

The man smiled back. "Yes. Yes it does."

The man started to walk out of the room. Kaname looked up at him, realized what he had said before, and looked at him. "Sir. If you don't mind me asking...what is your name?"

The man turned around, blinked at her, and said "Mazar Rackham."


	6. Commander

I don't really have an introduction for every single chapter of this fan fiction. I've regained my interest in it over the past few days, and now my mind is flourishing with ideas. So here you have it, Chapter 5!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Commander**

Kaname spent the next few weeks training under Mazar Rackham, honing her physical and emotional strength, becoming educated in the ways of the commander, and was taught how to keep herself calmin the midst of battle.

"One thing we don't want," Mazar Rackham explained over lunch one day, "is for our Commander to drop unconscious from stress. You have to know how to handle your own weakness. Make it your strength. Make your weaknesses shape who you are. I'm telling you the only way you will become strong. You are a young woman, you're almost fifteen. So kindly start acting like it."

Kaname nodded, sighing and digging into her mashed potatoes mixed with peas, feeling like a child. The child she had been seven years ago, when she had come to Battle School and had met Momomi and Amane and the rest of her friends. She also seemed very distracted, and seemed to do everything with a glossy, un-motivated air, as though she would much rather be somewhere else. Mazar blinked at her and placed a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him slowly.

"Kenjou. What is the matter with you? Your schoolwork has been suffering, you take no pride in your accomplishments. You're falling behind."

Kaname sighed, not being able to eat anymore, and set down her fork. "I don't know, Mazar. I've just been feeling so...empty. I can't find any motivation to do anything anymore. I'm tired, I'm lonely. I'm so bored of sitting here and doing nothing. I'm not even able to taste my food anymore. It's like...it's just nutrients that I'm filling my body with so I can live. I don't know what's wrong..."

Mazar sighed a bit, shaking his head and examining Kaname. "Maybe you should go to your room...for the time being. Get some rest, settle down. You've been working your butt off for a month now, pushing yourself every single day. I'm not surprised that your body is starting to shut down. No, no...don't worry about your training. Just go get some sleep, alright?"

Kaname smiled a him and nodded, getting up from her seat at the table and bowing. Mazar watched her as she left, though it seemed painful to walk. He sighed a bit and shook his head, then felt a presence behind him, but didn't turn around.

"Pushing her a bit too hard, don'cha think?" the voice said. Mazar knew who it was the moment he spoke.

"I didn't notice how young she was, Graff. I only thought of her as a Commander..._our_ Commander, and not a child. I asked things of her that no child could have ever managed, and she did it. All of it. I was too wrapped up in this war that I didn't know it was killing her..."

"It's alright." Graff sat in Kaname's seat, staring at Mazar. "The children never say anything about their pain, unless someone asks or if it becomes life-threatening. These children, unlike other children, don't know when to quit. Some don't know the meaning of the word quit...and I mean that literally. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the kids, no. I'm just saying that they're foolhardy. They need to learn when to quit. Also, I think that love might be another issue here."

Mazar stared at Graff in disbelief, then laughed out loud. "Kenjou? In love?!"

Graff shrugged and grinned at him. "I've been watching that girl since she had her monitor, and she is fully capable of loving someone, like every other robot-child we've raised. She just doesn't admit it to herself."

"Because it will show that she's vulnerable. They'll know she has a weakness."

"Exactly. Have you noticed that there is one girl that has affected her the most since Battle School? Have you noticed that Kenjou is more likely to listen to her than to us...or any adult, for that matter? She is the reason that Kenjou is here with us now, otherwise she would have stayed home and given up on this war completely. Now, why would that be?"

Mazar blinked at Graff and smiled. "You know the subject of love very well, Colonel."

Graff shook his head. "No. I only know those two girls well. They affect each other more than they know. If it wasn't for that girl, Kenjou would be back on Earth living like a potato. She would have given up, like I said. She hates this war, you see. She hates the training and the fighting...After this war, whether we win or not, she will never pick up a gun again. Ever."

"Wait...we're training little kids to use firearms?"

Graff only smiled.

--

"Company halt!"

"Sir!"

Both Momomi and Kaname were outside, standing perfectly still, their palms at the seams of their pants, staring without seeing. Graff was shouting orders at them.

"Right haste!"

They pivoted right.

"Left haste!"

They pivoted left.

"Parade rest!"

They spread their legs and moved their hands behind their backs. Graff circled them for a moment, then faced them again. "At ease." They both moved freely again, groaning and un-clenching their muscles.

"Good. You're getting used to obeying voice commands. Now..." He motioned with his hand, and Mazar Rackham brought them two pistols that looked uncannily like the ones from Battle School...except they were loaded with real bullets. Mazar threw one to each girl, and Graff watched them mess around with it, seeing the familiar buttons and looking at each other in the corner of their eyes.

"You are going to learn how to aim and shoot properly. You will be put through simulated battles in which you will need to survive."

"What if we don't survive? What if we get shot?" Momomi asked, looking anxious.

Graff smiled warmly at her. "Then you're dead."

They spent the next few days learning how to fire and aim. It proved to be more difficult than aiming and shooting in the Battle Room. Kaname was overcome with the gunfire the moment she first shot at a target, a watermelon set on a pillar. She recoiled and fell on her back. The watermelon absorbed the light bullet and burst apart, sending bits of the fruit flying across the field. One hit Graff in the face, and Momomi started snickering. Kaname smirked at her.

"You see?" Graff said, smiling at the two girls. "This is what you can do to the Bugger's heads. This is what they can do to _your_ heads. You'll burn from the inside until you can't take it anymore. Your insides will explode within twenty seconds of impact. You will need proper surgery to lead a normal life, if you aren't already dead. These things can be avoided, of course. Just don't take any direct blows. Alright?"

"Sir yes sir!"

"Battle," Graff continued, "is a very dangerous, real, frightening thing. You can get killed at any moment. You have to have the will to survive, or you _will_ be killed. This is why you have training, this is why you're not on Earth with Mommy and Daddy, sleeping safe in your beds. You have to fight for your country, your people. This is why you were born, most of your life was dedicated to what will happen in the next two or three years. You must be ready."

_Especially me,_ Kaname thought, getting slightly sick to her stomach. _Especially me..._

"Company dismissed!"

Both Kaname and Momomi stood upright, saluting Graff, and Graff saluted back. They walked back to the school together for dinner, and again, Kaname was quiet. Momomi watched her curiously, a bit concerned. She placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Kana? Are you okay?" she asked softly. Kaname's body shook, her hand barely able to support the fork in her hand. "Kana? What's wrong?"

Kaname started to open her mouth to respond, but Graff came into the room right as she started to speak. She closed her mouth and looked at her plate for a few seconds. Graff watched her, only for a split second.

"Kenjou! I want a word with you in my office after lunchtime. I've already arranged it with your teachers." He left the room, and Kaname sighed.

"I wonder what he wants..."

"What doesn't Graff want?" Momomi asked, sighing and shaking her head. "Anyways. What were you going to say?"

"I'm just...I'm scared. Of being a Commander. I don't really know anything about being a Commander..."

"Are you kidding?! You were one of the best Commanders in Battle School! They chose you to be here to command the I.F. Fleet! And you're saying that you can't be a Commander?!"

Kaname looked at Momomi deeply in the eyes. They stared at each other for quite a long time, and then Kaname went back to her food. She didn't say anything for a few long minutes, by which time she was done with the contents on her tray. Without speaking, she threw the trash away, placed the tray into the metal holder that the trays were designated to go, and went back to Momomi.

"Momomi, you to listen to me. I don't want to be a Commander. I don't want to lead troops into battle. I don't want to destroy anything or anyone. I just want to be normal."

Momomi sighed. "Kaname, as soon as you left home for Battle School, you stopped being normal."

Kaname left Momomi at the table and walked out of the cafeteria.. She made her way to Graff's office, palmed the door and entered the room, as she had done in Battle School. She found Graff sitting there, as he always looked, a bit on the fat side, but not too much. Graff motioned for her to sit, and she sat.

"Well, Kenjou. Are you ready to start your training as a Commander? A true Commander?"

Kaname nodded. She really didn't have anything else to say. Graff nodded at her nod and moved the desk in front of him so that it faced Kaname. On the desk were twenty names, names of kids. Names of soldiers. _Her_ soldiers.

"I've assembled these girls to train under you. I'm sure you'll find some of them familiar, some of them are not. Three of them are Launchies that need extra training."

Kaname did notice some of the names. Kiyashiki Momomi, Hanazono Shizuma, Rokujou Miyuki, Konohana Hikari, Nanto Yaya, Kitamura Yuki. Three other girls that Kaname had known from Battle School, and at the very bottom were the names Aoi Nagisa, Suzumi Tamao, and Okuwaka Tsubomi.

"Who are they?" Kaname asked.

"Suzumi Tamao and Aoi Nagisa were Launchies in the third group after you came to Battle School. Suzumi is a bit hyper-active, and it causes her to make a lot of stupid mistakes. Aoi is a sharp-shooter and has a very inquisitive mind, but her self-esteem and confidence are unhealthily low. Okuwaka has...well...attitude problems, and she gets nettled easily. You know the others, I'm sure."

"Of course. Nanto has a problem with following rules, but otherwise, she's a good soldier. Konohana is a whiz on the computer, but she has a hard time with military tactics. Wait, I don't get it. Each of the soldiers on here have one distinguishing trait that makes them hard to work with."

"Exactly," Graff said, smiling brightly. "Excellently put, Kenjou. You see, I want you to develop these girls into brilliant, loyal soldiers within these next few weeks. You can use any commanding tactics that you think will work, eh?"

"I don't have that much experience being a Commander. I've only ever trained kids in Battle School."

"That's all the experience you need."

--

The girls started arriving at Command School within the next week. Kaname noticed Hanazono Shizuma first, of course. She was the first to arrive. Her hair was long and silver, as usual...but something was different. Kaname blinked at her as they shook hands, and examined her. Oh, of course. Her bust was bigger. It must have been puberty.

Yaya and Hikari arrived together. Kaname found them together in the game room the day after they arrived, and took great pleasure in coming up behind them unexpectedly and scaring them out of their shorts.

The last to arrive were the youngest students. The rest of Kaname's troops, along with her, watched them as they descended in their pod. Three girls stepped out of the pod, along with their supervisor, an I.F. representative. One with blue hair, one with red hair and one with pink hair. They all looked equally anxious. They were wearing pale uniforms, exactly like what the Launchies were permitted to wear. Kaname stepped forward to greet them as they all stood in a line before her and saluted. She saluted them back and examined them.

"Suzumi Tamao, Aoi Nagisa, Okuwaka Tsubomi. Welcome to Command School. I suppose you know by now that this school is no cakewalk. It's not like Battle School. A lot of kids are older and smarter than you here. I hope you three are ready to endure some of the most rigorous, nerve-trying, painful training you're ever going to have."

"Yes sir!" they said in unison.

"Training begins tomorrow. You'll receive your assignments at random, so be prepared to follow them. As soon as the clock strikes 12pm, you are committed to your training no matter what time it is. That goes for the rest of you as well," Kaname said, looking around at the rest of her troops. They all said "Sir!" at the same time and Kaname dismissed them for the day.

Kaname watched them interact for the rest of the day. Shizuma took a liking to Nagisa quickly enough, she was talking and laughing with her and Tamao. Yaya had quite a lot of fun torturing Tsubomi with scary stories of the Buggers coming into soldier's beds during war and killing them in their sleep...which was true. Kaname had seen the vids.

As morning dawned brightly the next day, Kaname assembled her soldiers immediately after breakfast. She organized them in three groups of four.

"Good morning, everyone!" Kaname said cheerfully. A few groans of "Morning" replied. "Today, we're going to be practicing drills and we'll go into some technical stuff within the next hour."

There was a hand raised. Kaname rolled her eyes. "Shizuma?"

"How long is practice going to be?" she asked. Kaname smirked at her.

"Until I think your legs are about to fall off. Now let's go, everyone assemble on the track."

Everyone assembled on the track. Kaname took them through different Commands that they might hear during wartime, and how to react to them as quick as possible. Since Mazar Rackham hadn't provided their pistols yet, she decided to train them in the art of using automatic AK-47 guns that were used in older generations around the world during the 1800's and probably later than that.

"The key to firing any type of firearm," Kaname said, as they all held guns in their hands, "is to be able to aim without getting hit. In a Battle Room, this was used as a tactic so that the other team would be able to flash you, but you could still aim and shoot by twisting your body. That won't work during a war. Someone could shoot you in the arm and you'd be whithering on the ground crying for your mommy. Don't make this war into a Saving Private Ryan re-run."

The girls laughed and Kaname smirked a bit.

"Five laps around the track, and make it quick. We want to be done in fifteen minutes. If you're not done, that's another extra lap." Kaname blew on a whistle that hung from her neck, and the girls broke out in full sprint. Only Okuwaka was smart enough not to run so fast at the beginning, she was the first one done besides Momomi. All the rest trailed behind.

"That was good, but I think we can do better. Next time we'll try for fourteen, then thirteen. We-Nanto, what is it?"

"I have to go to the bathroom," she said, puffing her chest out. The girls giggled and Kaname rolled her eyes.

"Well hold it."

"I can't hold it!"

Indeed, Yaya looked like her bladder was about to burst open, she kept jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. Kaname watched her for a moment, then waved her off. "As Yaya-san takes care of her business, I want you all to know that there will be no bathroom breaks once the Buggers attack. You better learn how to hold it."

"What if we have to go to the bathroom while we're in war?" Nagisa asked.

"Piss on them."

They laughed again, then Kaname raised her voice to a yell. "This is serious, Privates! You're not here to joke around, you're hear to_learn, _and that is the only reason that you're here, is to learn. Yeah, crack jokes now and then, but jokes aren't going to get you through war. What do you think we're going to do, make them laugh until they break their bones? Who knows if they even have bones at all? No one really knows. All we know is that they are as capable of wiping out the entire human race as we are wiping them out. We just have to have strategy, we have to make sure they fear us. That is our goal, that is our purpose for all of us being here today."

Kaname looked around at her squad of girls, they all had fallen silent, and continued. "I'm allowing you to break up into teams to work on drills. I would prefer it if none of the Launchies grouped together. Let them make friends with an older student, help them learn new tactics. I'll be teaching you newer stuff once the new soldiers start to adapt to the environment. I'll give you two days. Organize at will."

For the next hour-and-a-half, the girls broke up into groups of two and three, going over war tactics that were used in Battle School. Some of the girls were hard on the younger soldiers, Yaya was taunting the pink-haired girl Tsubomi so often that Tsubomi stormed away into the building of the Command School, muttering things under her breath. Kaname sighed a bit.

"Can we _please_ be nicer to the younger students?" she asked, and Yaya smirked.

"Sorry, Commander."

Hikari took about twenty minutes to do this. She came back with Tsubomi at her side, and decided that she and Yaya ought to switch partners for the time being. Tsubomi seemed exceedingly happy about it, and took a liking to Hikari within about ten minutes. Kaname sighed, and after about three hours, she decided that they'd had enough.

"Alright, everyone! Front and center!" she called. The girls gathered in front of her. "Today was a good session. Later on we'll be learning actual war tactics, new things that you don't know yet. Just remember: The key to victory is strategy. Dismissed!"

Practice was officially over, no one had anymore classes, and now they could focus on being kids. Kaname walked along with the group next to Momomi as they headed off in different directions. Yaya, Hikari and Tsubomi headed off to the game room, and the other students headed off to the gym or their dorms. Even as Kaname walked within the group, watching the other girls talking and laughing and joking around after a long day's work, she felt a bit jealous. They had their whole lives ahead of them, unpredicted...well, after the war. They had freedom. They probably had parents and siblings and a home to go to. Kaname didn't have any of that, she was property of the I.F., a modern orphan. They could make her do anything they wanted until she was seventeen, and even after that, they had her in their grasp. She'd never escape them no matter where she lived. They held her records, knew her thoughts and feelings and friends and enemies.

She was a prisoner in her own mind.

--

It took a while, maybe two or three weeks, when Kaname finally got used to barking orders at her soldiers, telling them to drill and drill and drill and drill until they got tired of it, until they had done so much training that they got sick on the ground, on the grass, and after they were done with that Kaname would tell them to get back to it.

Of course, Kaname had it bad as well. Each day, class after pointless class. Classes that she had already delved deep into, things that she had already known two years ago, three years ago. She eventually gave them up to train with Mazar Rackham, late into the night and sometimes into the early morning, working on her physical and mental tolerance, focusing on certain key facts about the Buggers.

It was hard.

The other girls began to lose faith in Kaname, even Momomi started to doubt her. They had been out at the training grounds one day, Kaname was giving them a strict monologue about coming to practice on time, since most of them had been arriving one minute late, two minutes late, and they eventually turned into whole hours.

"Being on time is one of the important things in life. If you ever want to get a job when you're older, you have to be on time every single day to make a good impression. Or else you'll get fired, that is if your boss knows what he's doing."

"Might as well fire all of us," Momomi said under her breath, and the others snickered.

That touched a nerve in Kaname's brain, her brainwashed brain, and she walked over to Momomi and slapped her. "Are you questioning my leadership, Miss Kiyashiki?"

Momomi seemed immune to the slap. She looked as though it hadn't even happened, and she fixed Kaname with a cold stare, a stare that iced her heart over and over again until it shattered and there were only small fragments of it left. They had a quiet stare-down that seemed to last for decades, and when Momomi didn't respond, Kaname left her and turned to the others.

"This is what happens when you talk back to your Commander. A good soldier NEVER talks back, never questions, and never disobeys his or her Commander. You should be lucky that I'm nice, you should be lucky that I don't grind each and every one of you into the ground until you decide to oppose me. Now..." she said, and Mazar Rackham suddenly appeared, as if out of nowhere, with a large box in hand. "I'm going to be teaching you the art of using firearms. We've already practiced with the pistols in Battle School, but those are nothing compared to real guns. Sure, pull the trigger and fire. Pull and fire, pull and fire. But what happens if you run out of bullets, eh? With a pistol, with that laser, you can't run out of bullets or ammunition. But with real guns, you can."

Kaname took a gun out of the box, threw it to Hikari, and barked "Front and center!"

Hikari timidly walked up to her, holding the gun sheepishly in her right hand. Kaname smiled at her, not the warm smile that she had started using with her, but an almost taunting smile. Hikari seemed to notice it and didn't smile back.

"Konohana. Can you name what type of gun that is?"

Hikari shook her head.

"It's A Heckler & Koch USP .45 ACP handgun adopted by the U.S. Army in 1911, designed in 1906. The result is one of the world's more effective combat pistol cartridges, one that combines very good accuracy and stopping power for use against human targets. But...we'll use them against the Buggers as well. My policy is that if you can kill a human with one shot, you can kill a Bugger in one shot. Do you know how to shoot and load?"

Hikari nodded a bit.

"Do it."

Hikari fiddled with the gun for a few long seconds, and Kaname took the small gun out of her own pocket and shot it in the air. Hikari jumped, looking to Kaname with a fearful look, then Kaname shot her gun again and Hikari jumped again.

"Faster, Konohana-san."

Hikari did it faster this time, but not fast enough to satisfy Kaname, and she shot the gun again. By this time, Hikari was sick of the noise and looked to Kaname, not doing anything and looking on the verge of tears.

"Konohana-san. When I say to do something, I expect you to do it. Quickly, Konohana-san. Do you understand?"

Hikari nodded, her body shaking and looking as though she suffered from shell shock, and walked back to the rest of the girls. They were all silent, staring at Kaname, and Kaname looked back.

"Well? Time for target practice. Try to shoot down all of the coffee cans that are laid out in front of you. We'll use pistols next, so be ready."

They went through shooting drills, practiced maneuvering with their guns and pistols through small skirmishes, and the training was over within the next two hours. Everyone, exhausted but exited to be learning something new, trugged back up to the school.

Kaname was spending time with Momomi in the game room, alone. It had been the only time they had ever gotten time alone since they had come to Command School. Someone had always been there, whether it was Graff or Dink or Mazar Rackham. So she made sure that everyone was gone before going in with her.

They weren't playing any of the games, really. They were just watching the sky outside through the window, sitting on the windowsill, and Kaname let out a sigh.

"What is it?" Momomi asked, looking to her. Kaname blinked at her and looked back, her face determined.

"What took us so long?"

"What are you talking about?"

Kaname fiddled with her fingers and grinned a bit. "Getting to be alone like this."

"I don't know. Maybe it was the fact that we're going to be protecting the world. Or that fact that you're going to be a big, bad Commander in the main fleet. They're going to award you heavily, you know. You'll be one of the most famous people in the world, aside from the Hegemon."

"I know," Kaname said, closing her eyes. "I can't be as great as Peter Wiggin, though."

"I don't think anyone, not even Ender Wiggin, would be as great as Peter Wiggin," Momomi pointed out. "Sure, he might have been a crazy loon, but he was one of the greatest minds known to humankind. He was Locke, you know."

"And Valentine Wiggin was Demosthenes. I know, I've read the books."

"I hate this," Momomi suddenly said, and Kaname was started for a minute. She said it with such force. "I hate it. When we're alone together, all we can talk about is the stupid war. Or deceased politicians. Or war tactics. Why can't we be normal?"

Kaname closed her eyes and grinned. "When we left home for Battle School, we stopped being normal."

Momomi narrowed her eyes at her. "Oh, taking my words out of my mouth?"

Kaname smirked, and in a split second their faces were closer. "That's not the only thing I'm taking."

They leaned into each other and kissed, their lips touching for a slight moment, before they pulled away from each other and stared at each other, not a touch of a blush on either face. Because they both knew that they'd been waiting to do that for a long, long time. They probably also forgot how to blush, if that made any sense. They stared at each other for a long time, the thoughts of the war that was practically under their noses was gone, replaced with thoughts about what kind of life they would have after the war.

It was unpredicted, but they knew it involved the both of them.


	7. The War Begins

Nothing to say again. Go figure. Longest chapter yet, brace yourselves.

**Chapter 6: The War Begins**

In the course of the next few weeks, Kaname realized the power that she actually had at the Command School. She had never noticed, because she had never pursued power. But as she improved her Commanding skills, she had become more demanding of her peers, even the adults. They practically withered under her harsh commands, at her every beck and call. If she wanted different food, they gave it to her. If she needed more of a challenge in the game room, they gave it to her, changed the gameplay. If she needed more sleep because she was tired, they gave it to her.

It was all power.

And also, over the course of those few weeks, Kaname sought more power. If she had the power to bully even adults to do her bidding, she could do it with others as well.

She studied books about Hitler, and how his Nazi party came to power after the first world war. She learned about Stalin, how he turned Russia into one of the world powers in just a few years. She wondered...how did they get power? How did they expect a whole population...a whole country...to follow their lead? Under their rule, the world changed forever. Under their rule, whole countries were brought up and into power. But only one question racked Kaname's brain...How did they do it?

Some of the teachers and staff became worried of Kaname. She rarely scheduled practices with her troops, and when she did they only practiced things over and over until it was burned into the girl's brains, until they were sick of it. Kaname no longer was interested in that, was no longer interested in Commanding. Well...she was. Just not the way she was doing now. She wanted to strike fear into everyone. She wanted to have so much power that people would whither under her gaze, would salute to her as she passed them in the hallways, would not talk back to her for fear of being killed.

She wanted power, and the only things that kept her going through each and every day was seeing Momomi...and finding out how to get that power.

--

"I've got it!"

Kaname had been walking with Momomi to their practice. It was a few weeks after she started wanting more power, and Kaname had finally thought she figured it out.

Momomi gave her a sort of exasperated look, rolling her eyes and sighing. "What is it now?"

"I've found a solution. To make myself a better Commander."

"Oh?"

"Do you know how the Nazi party was formed?"

Momomi nodded. "Of course. The party was created out of smaller groups. The Freier Ausschuss für einen deutschen Arbeiterfrieden."

"Right. And how did he come to power?"

"I don't quite understand what you mean by that," Momomi said, raising an eyebrow. She was conspicuous, Kaname knew it. So she smirked.

"Well. How did Adolf Hitler control the Nazi Party? How did he gain so much power? I'll tell you why. Because he was able to get into those people's heads. He was able to pick at their every fear and tell them that he could do better, that they would get into power, that they would come out on top. And you know what? They believed him. They stuck with him."

"So. What you're telling me is that you want so much power that you want people to fear you? What if you end up like Hitler and commit suicide? What do you do then?"

Kaname blinked at Momomi. For a couple of quick moments, her mind was swimming. She didn't know what to do.

"I'm not going to kill myself."

Momomi shrugged a bit and they shied off the subject. There was still slight tension between the two after the kiss, even though they hadn't mentioned it since it happened. During their conversations, there were long pauses in which the silence just hovered in the air between them, awkwardly. They avoided each other's eyes during training and rarely ever saw each other outside of the game room or meals or practice. If they talked, they said few words to each other and it was usually about war tactics or what they should cover in practices.

And even though Kaname didn't want to admit it, Momomi had been right. The only thing they ever talked about when they were alone was war tactics. And Kaname started to hate it, too.

She also noticed something else, one night when she was laying awake in her room, trying to get to sleep. Memories of Battle School were coming back to her. Going on the launch, meeting Momomi, being led by Shion, her first battle with Momomi, getting her first army, those girls who attacked her...She noticed that, since the day that they'd met, she'd always had some deep affection for Momomi. Even though it might not have been as hardcore as "love" then, she still felt something even though she was unaware of it.

Kaname spent most of the night thinking, until she was finally able to get to sleep. She woke up early, though, so she could give her soldiers their orders. It was five in the morning instead of the usual four. She signed onto her desk and sent a message to everyone on her roster to report to the training grounds at six. She would be skipping breakfast, of course. She never had a fondness for eating so early in the morning, anyway. She felt that it made her weak and tired.

After slipping into her Commander's uniform, she headed out to the training grounds alone. She was surprised, however, to see that Momomi was already awake. She had one of the guns and was practicing her shooting, aiming at the targets that they had set up the previous day. She was still a bit rusty, but she was improving.

Kaname smirked and walked over to her, watching her a few feet behind her. Momomi was too wrapped up in the training to even notice that Kaname was standing right behind her.

"Boo," Kaname said, nonchalantly, and Momomi jumped practically a mile and turned around to face Kaname, her chest heaving.

"That wasn't funny," she said with a pout, and Kaname shrugged.

"What are you doing out here so early?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I'm here at this time every morning," Kaname said, raising an eyebrow at Momomi. "And for the record, I asked you first, and you really have no reason to be out here besides to make a fool of yourself."

Momomi rolled her eyes and ignored the blatant comment. "For your information, I need extra practice. Something that you wouldn't understand, since you're naturally good at everything."

Kaname smiled evilly. "What gives you that idea? I have to train like the rest of you. We were at the same level at Battle School."

"Sure," Momomi said, playing with the collar on her uniform. "But you don't have to learn the same stuff that we learn from you."

"Of course," Kaname said, crossing her arms importantly. "I have to be ahead of my soldiers, don't I?"

Momomi grinned and looked at Kaname closely, noticing the skateboard that she held in her hand. Graff had bought it for Kaname during their "vacation" in England, to give her something productive to do rather than laying in her bed waiting for her next cycle to come and pass. "What do you have your skateboard for?"

"Huh?" Kaname blinked and scratched her head, thinking. "I usually bring it out here so I can skate around the area a bit. It sort of calms me down before we start training, trying to go as fast as I can, trying to go faster every day."

"You sure do get a kick out of those kinds of things, don't you? You're a regular daredevil," Momomi said, and Kaname rolled her eyes.

"Come on, let's get some food."

"You never eat in the morning..."

"Well, I do today. Let's go," Kaname urged her, and pulled her sleeve to get Momomi to follow her.

"Well, jeez. You don't have to be so eager..."

"Who says I'm being eager?"

"I can see it on your face."

"What? What face?"

Their silly argument carried on until they reached their table at the Mess Hall. They sat down together, eating their food, not talking. It was always like this. They always ate their food in silence, not talking to each other. It was as though it were a moment of peace for the both of them, where they could think with each other. It was odd, but Kaname thought of it that way.

Out of nowhere, it seemed, Mazar Rackham, Graff and Dink walked past them. They looked at them, looked at each other, and said "Morning" in unison.

"Morning," Kaname and Momomi said back. Then they looked at each other. Since when did the adults dine here?

"Kenjou. Glad to see you're actually up and eating today," Mazar said. Kaname knew that Mazar Rackham and the other teachers were watching her habits daily, and they probably knew that she hadn't been going to meals since she was made Commander of her own troop. The stress made it seem like she didn't need to eat as much. It made her less hungry.

Kaname simply nodded at Mazar and looked back down at her food. The three men looked at each other questioningly, and they left them. Kaname looked to Momomi and rolled her eyes.

"They're always watching me."

"Of course," Momomi said, shrugging and finishing her food, pushing her tray away. "You're their Commander. You're smart and tactical and probably one of the best strategists in the world. They love you, of course they'd be watching you."

Kaname knew that Momomi was right. She also knew that even Momomi watched her sometimes. So she posed the question she'd been wanting to ask for quite a while at this point.

"Do you love me?" Kaname asked seriously, looking to Momomi and smirking a bit. Momomi tinted red a bit and looked back down at her food.

"Shut up and eat."

Kaname shut up and ate. However, she was still smirking with a sort of victorious expression on her face. The feeling seemed like it would carry on through the rest of the day.

As to not seem suspicious, Momomi went to practice ahead of Kaname. Kaname was slightly confused as she followed her about half an hour later. What, were they seeing each other secretly now? Were they so timid about being with each other in public? When did the awkward-ness start, and when would it end? Kaname wasn't sure how their relationship turned out to be this way. They had used to be such good friends during Battle School, they had seen each other every day, had been companions and enemies in the Battle Room. They had basically gone through everything together, and now it seemed like it was all past them.

After the practice that day(not a particularly successful one, what with the bickering of Yaya and Tsubomi ringing in everyone's ears), she received a shocking bit of information that shouldn't have seemed shocking to her. As she sat at her table alone at the afternoon meal, Dink came to sit next to her.

"Ho, Kenjou," he said casually. Kaname could sense the tension.

"Ho, Dink. You've got something to say to me."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Since Kaname had studied other person's body language, she knew what kind of things they were thinking, if they were lying or not, if they were calm or tense. And Dink certainly seemed tense...in a calm way.

"Right," Dink said. "Graff told me to tell you that...well. The Buggers are expected to land on this planet within the next two weeks."

Kaname stared at him, wide-eyed. She hadn't expected them to be coming this early, even though she expected them to arrive within that year. She shook her head and looked back down at her food.

"Really."

Dink gave her a serious look. "You're going to be put through some tough training until they arrive. And they expect you to train your troops as well."

"My troops already knows everything I can teach them," Kaname said bluntly, and it was true. Kaname had exhausted all of her knowledge onto her soldiers, so many of the practices they had done recently had been free time for them, letting them shape their own routines, while Kaname sat and watched, proud of having transformed the girls into the soldiers they had become. Even Hikari was improving with her shooting and her aim, and her speed was incredible. She smiled to herself, and obviously Dink saw it, because he grinned as well.

"You're a great Commander, and you know it, Kenjou. But you're being put through the ultimate test. If you fail, we all die, whether you live through it or not. Every single person in this Command School depends on your tactics. Are you sure you can handle this?"

"A wise man once said," Kaname started, "'I don't know, as a woman.'"

Dink laughed, obviously understanding the reason behind the statement, and stood up from the table.

"It looks like you have yourself together. We're counting on you, Commander."

As Dink started to leave, Kaname called to him. "Dink! I have a question for you. Sit down."

Dink obeyed and sat. Kaname mentally smirked, she even had power over Dink Meeker. She pressed the tips of her fingers together, setting her elbows on the table in front of her. "I have a question."

"Ask away."

Kaname sighed a bit, wondering how to put it. "Does love make a Commander weaker?"

Dink seemed surprised at the question, as Kaname predicted that he would be, and tapped his fingers on the table as he thought. "It's a complicated question, Kenjou. Why on Earth would you ask?"

A blush grazed her cheeks. "I'm just wondering. I'm going to be a Commander, I can't let feelings get in the way."

Dink examined her closely, and nodded. "In certain ways, emotions make all people weaker. Then again, it does make them stronger. It reminds us that we are humans and not Buggers. Who knows if the Buggers feel any emotion? We only know that we, as humans, are capable of emotion. Most children, as they go through Battle School, forget that they have emotions because they're not allowed to have them. They feel they become weak as they let emotion come back to them, and so they push them farther away to be strong. But the fact of the matter is, Kenjou, is that emotion exists within all of us. We just remain to be numb to it, consciously numb. But unconsciously, we know it's still there, residing within our hearts, and as long as the heart continues to beat, it continues to beat emotion through us. Do you understand?"

Kaname nodded, thinking. Since Battle School, emotions had slipped away from her many times. But they were always brought back every time she saw..._her_...

"Thanks, Dink," Kaname said gratefully, with a small smile. Dink nodded at her and stood again. This time Kaname did not call him back. She remained at that table long before the bell for afternoon classes rang, sitting and thinking.

--

The next day, Kaname told her troops that she was ending their daily practices. A lot of them were confused, some were relived and others were outraged.

"I'm sorry," Kaname said, and she felt the meaning behind the apology slip away from her. She indistinctly looked to Momomi for a quick second, then addressed her troops again. "I reckon that I've trained you enough for you all to be independent. You'll be practicing on your own. Have some rest, go to the game room, do whatever. But our normally scheduled practices will end as of now."

"Why, Kaname?" Hikari asked, she was among the confused. Kaname could tell by her expression. It was the same expression she had given her when Kaname had left her army back at Battle School. She didn't know if she should tell Hikari and the rest of her troops the horrifying truth, that the Buggers could land any moment. The conflicting idea of making them panic and not readying them quick enough clashed within her brain. Then she decided...she had to tell them.

"Because," Kaname said, and her voice became hollow, serious and cold. "The Buggers are scheduled to arrive in the space of about two weeks."

There were gasps of horror at this news, outraged yells and stunned silence among the group.

"Hold on a minute!" Yaya's voice sounded, and everyone turned to her as she emerged from the group and walked right up to Kaname's face. "Why are they coming so soon? I wasn't expecting them for at least another year!"

Kaname pushed her away and she backed off. "I heard it from Dink, who must have heard it from whoever runs this school. I just wanted to tell you guys, because you all need to be ready and alert. Expect an emergency assignment at any time. Look!" Kaname boomed angrily. Scattered conversations had started among the group at the news. Everyone fell silent at once.

"I know you all are shocked, scared and possibly annoyed. But you are all soldiers...this is expected of you. I want you to know that you have come a long way with me, and I thank you for sticking with me as my troops. I couldn't be a more proud Commander. I asked this of you...I asked that you stick with me through the end. And now I'm asking all of you to be individually prepared for whatever may come. Because whatever will come will come when it wants to, get me?"

There were murmurs of agreement, and Yaya, who was in front of the group, clapped her hands.

"What's wrong with you people? Did you come all this way to be sissys? War is upon us, and you're going to cry for mommy and daddy? Some of us have no mommies or daddies! We've got to win this war for all the people, the people who are homeless, the people with no mommies or daddies or grandmas or grandpas, the people who are broke and have no money, the people with disabilities, everyone! Do it for them, or they're all dead! Do it for our Commander!"

This aroused a wave of cheers and waving hands and clapping.

"For the horde!" Shizuma yelled, and there were more outbursts of clapping and laughing and cheering. Kaname shook her head and smiled at everyone, glad for their enthusiasm. Some of the staff even came to see what the commotion was about. She wasn't sure how long it would last, however.

The girls broke away from each other after a while, but otherwise had a good time that day. Kaname watched as her troops talked about the tactics, about how the Buggers would move around on the planet. Yaya gave a hilarious demonstration of how she would attack one of the Buggers, using Tsubomi, of course. At the end, Yaya said that she was glad Tsubomi wasn't a Bugger, because she was too damn persistent to be held down. It was a trait, Kaname thought, that would help her in the war.

Kaname was numb to all of the celebration, though. For her, the war was nothing to celebrate about. It was fear for her. Fear and anxiety. And it was not a good feeling.

She spent the next few days in her room, alone, not seeing anyone, not speaking, not eating. Eating made her sick, no matter what she ate. Her stomach would reject it as soon as it settled there. Many people, mostly the teachers and staff, knocked on her door to see what was wrong with her. Kaname did not answer any of them, not even Momomi. For her, it was just living day-by-day until the Buggers came.

However, she was able to snap out of her un-motivated trance by Momomi barging into her room and dumping a large container of water onto her head as she sat meditating. She fell over and squirmed around, spitting the water out, and glared at her.

"What was that for?!" she asked angrily.

Momomi smiled a bit and shrugged. "I thought you might need someone to wake you up."

It had worked. Kaname went back to training alone, endlessly, day and night. She did not go to classes and was not asked about it. Her grades were too good for any of them to care if she came to class or not. Now, she was either in her room reading or outside training. It became a way of life. She would not survive without the training. It was drilled into her brain...she needed to become stronger in order to survive, to come on top. Even though she had learned, what she thought, all there was to know about the war, she was still skeptical about knowing _everything_. So she continued to hone her skills.

--

The day came unexpectedly, as everyone knew it would. Kaname was awake and alert when they arrived, everyone else was asleep or as quiet as mice. Then she heard the noise.

It was a high-pitched, screeching noise that filled Kaname's ears, causing her head to throb, and she had to cover her ears to drone out the horrible sound. She jumped out of bed, dressed quickly while the sound rang through the school, and ran out of the room. Others were running out of their rooms, too, and they looked to Kaname as she ran down the hallways. They wondered what the noise was.

All of a sudden, there was a huge booming noise that sounded outside. High-pitched screams could be heard. Kaname rushed off to see what the ruckus was about, and looked in horror at the scene in front of her.

A classroom had been blown up by a bomb. There were no signs of bodies anywhere, it was as though they had disintegrated by the heat of the bomb. But the shadows of the people lay etched on the ground. A shoulder collided with hers, joisting her out of the way as some teachers came to examine the scene.

"Don't go near there! You'll get hit, too!" Kaname yelled, ordered. Everyone backed off, as more bombs were being thrown from space, and people panicked. Kaname panicked as well. What if one of them got her troops? What if one of them got Momomi...?

Her fears were put on hold as she saw a familiar face come up to hers. Mazar Rackham, wearing a protective helmet. His face was distorted and fearful.

"Get the kids together, stay close!" he yelled, and Kaname went off to send a message to everyone. They all turned up five minutes later, huddled together in the cafeteria as the bombing noises were heard. Many girls were sobbing, many were ready to protect them.

"Keep your cool," Kaname said calmly, but nothing she said helped. They were still in cahoots, and so Kaname ceased trying. "Where's Momomi?"

The girls murmured that they didn't know, and she called one of the older women to keep an eye on her troops while she went to search for her.

"Commander, why go out of your way to find one girl?" the woman asked. Kaname didn't answer her and ran out of the room, dodging mini bombs that came through the blasted-off ceiling of the Command School. There were screams around her, yellings of "Ambush! Ambush!", and soldiers running up and down the hallways to get to the battle field.

Kaname's feet skid on the slippery tiles where the insides of the poison bombs spewed out. Purple, toxic ooze covered the floors. It took her a while, but she got used to using it to her advantage and it let her slide along the floor with her shoes, moving faster than if she was running around.

She made it outside, and looked up at the sky that covered the entire universe. There were tiny specks of light visible, and when Kaname shielded her eyes to get a closer look, it was then that she realized those as the Bugger ships. They were coming for them, and no one was ready. Everywhere she looked people were running around, situating the children, keeping the younger ones out of the way. The bombs were only the beginning...

Suddenly, someone appeared next to her. Kaname didn't have to look to realize who it was.

"Pesky Buggers, aren't they?" Momomi's voice said, in a smirking tone. Kaname looked at her. She had burns on her face, and her tennis shoes were being eaten off by the poison goo. Kaname looked down at her own shoes and found that the soles were starting to peel off as she stood.

"I suppose so," Kaname said, watching Momomi trying to pry some plaster off of her uniform. "Nasty little things. They attacked without us knowing."

"What other way would they attack? We weren't expecting them in the First or Second invasions, either. But we still won. Watch yourself."

A bomb was hurled at Kaname then, whizzing right at her, and it gave a split half a second to react. She moved away right before it hit her. It hit the ground and exploded, splattering the ground with the purple goo, with bits of green there, too. She and Momomi let out noises of disgust, and moved away from the puddle as it started to spread around the area.

"Where are the others?" Momomi asked, as she dodged another bomb coming at her head. Kaname sighed and shrugged.

"I have no idea. I left them with one of the teachers to watch out for them...oh good lord..."

Momomi turned around, and noticed what Kaname had been looking at. A Bugger ship was descending onto the planet Eros, and it seemed for a moment that time seemed to stop. Kaname didn't notice Momomi standing next to her, she didn't notice any of the other students or staff running around. She just focused on that one ship. It wasn't until Momomi tugged at her sleeve and pulled her away indoors.

"M-Momomi...that was..."

"The Buggers, I know," Momomi said, gravely, and looked Kaname in the eyes. "We've got to get the girls together-"

But right as she said this, the group of girls that Kaname had been training all showed up, one by one, sliding down the hallway. Kaname watched as each of her girls came down that hallway, led by Yaya, looking poised and ready to fight. She grinned at them all, and they grinned back, and then she knew. It was time.

"Well, guys. This is it. The final test. The Buggers are out there right now. We have to be ready. This is _our_ game. So don't screw up. Use everything that I've taught you."

A staff member suddenly came up, carrying a huge back of equipment. He set it down in front of Kaname, smiled and saluted her. Kaname saluted back, nodding, and the man scurried off. She blinked at the soldiers, grinning, and gestured to the bag.

"Well? I don't expect you to go out there without your equipment. Your sensitive little hands will get burnt without gloves on."

Everyone laughed, a tense laugh, and they all grabbed at the uniforms and pistols and protective helmets. As soon as everyone was dressed, when everyone had their pistols at their sides and were waiting for Kaname's orders, Kaname herself stood in front of the group, her pistol at her side, smiling at them all.

"Attention!" she called, and each one of the girls got into a long line. "G-47 formation! Forward march!"

Kaname watched as each girl walked in a line, their feet moving as one through the hallways until they reached the exit towards the outside. Then, they broke off so one girl went the opposite way of the girl behind them, until they were all in one straight line facing the Bugger ships. They immediately began to charge their weapons, including Kaname, and she stood at the middle of the line as the Bugger ships descended. Probably five of them, all descending at once, in a line as they were.

"Hold your fire," Kaname said through a corner of her mouth, as she heard the mechanical clicking of the inside cogs of the pistols around her. Some girls eagerly pointed their pistols at the Bugger ships, waiting for them to appear. But as soon as one of the doors to the ships opened, Yaya was the first one to shoot. A beam of light, making a high-pitched whizzing sound and as fast as a gun bullet, shot out of the pistol and right past the door of the ship, disappearing into the interior. Suddenly, one of the Buggers, the bug-like aliens, slid out of the conveyor belt and twitched on the ground until it was dead, green oozes of blood spurting from the thing's head.

Kaname and the other girls turned their heads in unison to look at Yaya. Yaya stepped out of the line so she could look at Kaname, and grinned, charging her weapon again.

"Sorry, Commander. I couldn't contain myself."

The girls in the jeesh laughed, and Kaname had to chuckle herself. Yaya was always one to break tension. She watched as Yaya took her place back in line, grinning at the small, pink-haired girl Tsubomi Okuwaka, who was rolling her eyes and pretending not to pay attention to her.

"Are we all ready?!" Kaname shouted as the openings to the Bugger ships opened mechanically.

"Hai!" the troops called, and as soon as the shouting was done, the Buggers ran out of their ships and Kaname's army started their ambush. Yaya was the first to make contact with a Bugger, she practically threw herself at it bravely, took her pistol off of her Velcro belt, and instead of shooting at it, jabbed it in the eye. It groaned and squirmed on the ground, then Yaya finally pressed the trigger on the pistol. The beam of light shot right into the Bugger's eye, and there was a gory few seconds in which the Bugger exploded, and green blood and alien flesh sprayed everywhere. Yaya was covered in gross stuff, but did not pay attention to it as she ran off into the midst of the enemy territory.

Kaname watched from the sidelines, trying to keep tabs on all of her girls. Shizuma was punching a Bugger in the face about fifty feet to her left, and stunningly, she saw Aoi Nagisa and Suzumi Tamao both blasting Bugger's heads open with so much speed and force that not even Kaname would have been able to deal with them.

There was one girl, however, that Kaname was exceptionally worried about, almost as much as Momomi, and that was Hikari. She went looking for her, knocking out Buggers on the way, and saw the golden blond head of hair trying to hold down four Buggers by herself, who came at her from all angles. One had her shoulders, while the others were holding her waist, neck and legs. Kaname watched in horror as Hikari was shot with one of their pistols. However, miraculously, Hikari was able to move her head and arms out of the way, suffering from only second-degree burns outlining her entire body.

There were girls who went out of their way to help others as well. Kaname noticed Tsubomi being held down to the ground by one of the Buggers, holding a pistol to her forehead and another to her neck. She thrashed and kicked and punched at it, trying to get it off, but it was pinning her down firmly. A few seconds later, the Bugger's head was burst open by a bullet of light from one of their pistols, and Kaname looked around to see what had caused it. The only other girl Kaname saw near Tsubomi was Yaya, who was already fighting another one off. Tsubomi lay there in confusion.

It seemed like hours before Graff finally came. He hunted down Kaname and grabbed her shoulder.

"Kenjou! We need more people commanding the ships up in space, they keep throwing down bombs from above us. Get some of your girls to get back into the building and get into the pods, hurry up!"

Kaname nodded. "Understood!" she said, and scouted out some of the girls she thought would be good up in the ships. Konohana Hikari, Okuwaka Tsubomi, Toumori Shion and Hanazono Shizuma were her first choices. She couldn't find the others now, not even Momomi, and Kaname silently worried for her safety.

"Listen, guys," Kaname said to the four girls. They seemed pretty beat up, but pleased with themselves. "We have to get into the ships to stop the Buggers from blowing up the planet, alright? Because if they blow up the planet, then all of us are instantly dead."

"What about the others?!" Tsubomi asked, and Kaname knew she distinctly meant Yaya.

"They'll be fine down here. Don't worry."

"Where's Momomi?" Shizuma asked, and Kaname glared at her.

"Don't ask questions. Let's get inside, everyone!"

The five of them trugged back to the building. Some of the Buggers tried to prevent them from going inside, but otherwise they made it safely. They found Graff down in the basement, in which Kaname had to blast the code box away for them to be able to get in.

"Why do they still have that coded if we have a war going on?" Tsubomi asked snobbishly, and the other girls laughed.

"So the Buggers don't steal our pods," Kaname said, grinning. They came across Gaff, finally, and he ordered them to get into the pods.

"We're going to try and get more of your girls up there, Kenjou. We've got staff weeding them out from the battle. Some of them refused to leave, they wanted to blow up more Buggers," Graff said, rolling her eyes.

"Sounds like Yaya-chan," Tsubomi muttered. The other girls smirked and nodded in agreement.

"Go ahead and get in, everyone except Kenjou. She'll give you your assignments when the time is right," Graff said, and Kaname looked up at him curiously.

"You're the Commander, Kaname, not me," Graff said, smirking. "It's up to you how we're going to get through this. I know this seems mellow-dramatic, but the world is resting on your shoulders."

"Gee, that makes me feel tons better," Kaname said, narrowing her eyes. She was unamused by Graff's banter.

"It's my way of reminding you that you might not get out of this alive. You fight better if you've got something to fight for."

"Well, goodness, aren't we smart?"

Kaname and Graff smirked at each other. It was almost as though Graff was treating her like an equal, like an adult, and Kaname was only fifteen. She gazed seriously at him now, and Graff's air of joking left as fast as it had come.

"Colonel Graff, you've done everything I could ask for. You've opened my eyes to the truth, more than any other adult. You never lied. Then again...you never really told the truth either. What I'm saying is...thanks. You made me who I am today, shaped me. I owe everything to you, and Mazar."

Graff waved his hand. "The power was within you all along. You just had to train it and make it something you could use. Well, there's nothing else I can teach you, Commander. Go do your stuff."

Kaname smiled at Graff, shook his hand, and turned back to small, confused troop, whom were strapping themselves into their pods. Kaname was surprised that each of them already knew how to start them up, and they were holding onto the steering wheels. Kaname got into her own pod, dawned her small headset onto her ears, and spoke into it.

"Testing, testing. Does everyone hear me loud and clear, over?"

"We here you loud and clear, over," four other voices replied.

"Good, over and out." Kaname looked at Graff, and gave him a thumbs-up. Graff nodded at her and pulled a lever, causing the ceiling of the room to lift, allowing them to get outside and into the air.

They flew across the battle scene, looking down on their fellow humans with interest, cheering them on even though they knew the soldiers couldn't hear them. The pods flew through the air like birds, so fast and so gracefully that even Kaname couldn't believe it. Why did they put her in this? Why didn't they let her remain on earth with the others?

Her question was answered a mere few seconds later. Like a dozen little dots, the Bugger fleets flew towards them, zipping past them and decking them with tons of light-bullets. The pods swayed and Kaname lost grip of the controls, stumbling over in the pod and slamming against the door.

"Is everyone okay?" she asked through the headset microphone. There were scattered "Yes"'s throughout the pods.

"This is stupid," Tsubomi's voice sounded as Kaname got back onto the controls, turning her pod around so that they came into formation against the what seemed to be hundreds of Bugger ships. "We're only four girls, and we're supposed to fight the Bugger ships all on our own?!"

"That's the plan," Kaname said calmly, as she always did. But deep down, she knew that she was just as confused...and just as scared...as her soldiers. But seeing them near her, seeing that they weren't going to back out of this, and her confidence seeped back through her.

_This is for you, Momomi..._she thought, and closed her eyes, saying a silent prayer for her. There was a big chance that she would never see her again. It was good while it lasted...she would never forget her...

"Commander, they're moving in!" Shion's voice sounded in her ears. Kaname looked out of her pod, and noticed that the enemy were taking an advance.

"Konohana and Okuwaka, follow me! Hanazono, you and Tomori can take care of these Buggers, I trust?"

"Of course," Shion's confident voice sounded, and Kaname knew she meant it.

"Well, let's break off, then! Meet you later!"

While Shion and Shizuma took care of the Buggers, Kaname led Tsubomi and Hikari towards the Bugger home planet, not too far away from them. They zipped through outer space, dodging asteroids and the lagging Bugger ships. They finally made it, landing down on the planet. It was airy and they weren't going to be able to stay long. Kaname blinked, taking out a small bomb from her pocket and examining it. They were supposed to plant the bomb in the heart of the planet, so the whole planet would disintegrate and never exist again. She felt Tsubomi and Hikari shift nervously next to her, examining the small, golf-ball sized bomb.

"What is that, Commander?" Hikari asked, and Kaname sighed a bit, placing the bomb back in her pocket and starting to walk around, her feet shuffling against the foreign soil.

"A bomb. We're going to blow up the planet."

"Well, that would be smart," Tsubomi said, grinning. "Why didn't we do that earlier?"

"We didn't have a smart enough Commander to get here through space, that's all," Hikari said before Kaname could reply. "They would get lost in orbit."

Tsubomi and Hikari laughed and Kaname smirked, continuing to walk. What they were supposed to be looking for, Kaname had no idea. Mazar Rackham's instructions had inferred that Kaname was supposed to plant the bomb somewhere specific, as to stop the Bugger population from growing. Even as she walked, the larvae of young Buggers stuck to rocks and pulsed. They were obviously in the maturing stage. They surveyed the planet in a group, broke off into individuals for a time, then went back in a group. They could not find anything that seemed like an obvious place to drop a bomb.

Then Kaname saw it. It was a volcano-shaped rock, and looking down into the opening of the rock, a sea of black abyss was visible. Kaname looked to Tsubomi and Hikari, and they looked back, shrugging.

"What now?" Tsubomi asked, looking down into the huge crater. Kaname's hand ventured into her pocket and enclosed softly on the bomb. She was thinking. Hikari must have noticed it, because she turned around and spoke.

"What's wrong, Commander?" Tsubomi also looked to Kaname's face. She was starting to grow pale and white, her neck and fingers sweating. If she dropped this bomb, an entire race of living beings would die. They would live no more, never to see another day. And she, Kaname Kenjou, a 14-year-old child, would be the complete cause of it. An entire race, gone. Because of one person...

"Come on, Kaname. Drop the bomb. We haven't got much time, we're losing oxygen as we speak."

Kaname looked to Hikari, then to Tsubomi, her expression stony. "This is it," she said softly, her fingers closing more tightly around the bomb. "I drop this in here, and it's all over. A whole race of beings, gone. Never to be seen again."

Tsubomi nodded slowly. "Yeah...that means the war is over, aside from the Buggers that aren't on the planet. What are you going on about?"

"If I do this," Kaname explained, "I'm going to have to live the rest of my life knowing that I killed billions of living beings with one bomb. I don't know if I want..."

"You don't know if you want to save the world?" Hikari asked, narrowing her eyes, and Kaname was surprised at her expression. She looked exasperated, impatient. "Kaname, you're doing a world service. Those Buggers were out to kill us all, whether you think so or not. You, me, Tsubomi, your parents if you've got any, everyone on earth, Graff and Dink and Mazar Rackham, and our friends... and Momomi, too. They want them all _dead_. Do this, and you can save them all. They can continue to live long, happy lives. So do it for them, do it for yourself."

Kaname blinked at her. She had never heard Hikari talk for such a long time, had never heard anything come out of her mouth that wasn't a soft word or two. Hikari had never explained anything to her, had never reassured her. And now, here she was, preaching to her like a teacher. But Kaname was convinced. She nodded and gently removed the small bomb from her pocket, examined it in her hands, and turned her hand upside-down, dropping the bomb into nothing. They did not hear it fall, but the surface of the ground started to warm up, and Kaname jumped to her feat.

"We have to get out of here," she said, looking to her soldiers. Tsubomi and Hikari nodded, and ran towards the pods, getting off the planet in a hurry. As soon as they ascended off the planet back into space, they watched as the planet slowly started to shrink, growing smaller and smaller until it finally blew up, spreading small debris everywhere, in the form of asteroids. They zipped through the air to avoid them, and met up with Shion and Shizuma as they fought off the rest of the Buggers. Only a few dozen remained now. They finished them off and continued to travel back to Eros.

"What do we plan to do once we're back on Eros?" Shizuma asked as they flew. Kaname blinked into the five-way monitor, which showed the faces of her soldiers, and shrugged.

"We're going to see what the others are up to," Kaname said. "Odds are that they're still down their fighting. We'll help them out once we get down there."

"And lemme guess," Shion said, smirking. "You're going to go off looking for Momomi."

A muscle in Kaname's jaw twitched. _Yes, I'm going to go off to look for Momomi. So what, so what?_ was what she wanted to say back. But she continued to steer her pod in silence.

"If I were you," Shion continued, and it seemed as though everyone else was silent, listening to the conversation. "I would go down there and check to see if she's still alive. Odds are I would be able to score with her if I just assert myself, but I'm just too stubborn to let my feelings out just because I'm a big bad Commander, flying through the sky just after having blown up a whole planet."

Kaname's silence continued, though her rage and acceptance rose to boiling point. Shion was right, she was too busy thinking about the war to even think about telling Momomi her feelings...except for the one day that they were alone...maybe that had just been an "in the moment" kind of thing. Shion said nothing else on the matter, but her words still echoed through Kaname's brain. Why was she so stupid?

Eros seemed to be slightly quiet when the five girls landed. No Buggers were running around killing people, and only a few people remained outside now, tending to the injured men and women, girls and boys. Kaname looked around for some familiar faces, but none showed up. She looked to Shion, Shizuma, Tsubomi and Hikari with an indifferent expression on her face. She felt sick.

Shizuma came over to Kaname and held her shoulder. "I'm going to take these kiddies inside. Maybe we'll find the others when we look for them. Right now, you need to go and find Momomi. Really," she said, grinning at her. Kaname looked up at her and sighed, closing her eyes.

"This reminds me when you were joking to me about us being lovers when we were in Battle School."

"To think, I used to be higher up than you then," Shizuma said, grinning still. "And I treated you like dirt. Well, look at us now."

"You're like my lapdog," Kaname said, grinning back. "And Yaya is like the head of my fan club."

Shizuma laughed. Kaname blinked at her, she'd never really laughed or smiled or anything like that. Ever since she met that girl Nagisa...Kaname had seen them together in the game room and at meals recently, always with a brooding Tamao sulking in their wake. She shook the thought out of her mind, finding it repulsive, and looked back to Shizuma. Shizuma blinked at her and pushed her lightly.

"Go. I'll take care of things here," she said, and Kaname nodded, walking a few steps before looking back at her, giving her a thumbs-up.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Just don't start snogging right when you see her, that lacks tact and romance. Plus she'll think you're only trying to get in her pants."

Kaname wrinkled her nose. "You would know about getting into people's pants, wouldn't you?"

Shizuma glared at her and Kaname ran off. Kaname distinctly heard a "Keh!" of frustration come from Shizuma's mouth as she ran off, and Kaname grinned to herself as she surveyed the barren, battle-worn surface of Eros. She did not find Momomi anywhere outside, and so she compromised by giving up and went back inside to join the others.

A lot of people were being tended to in their rooms, hardly any of Kaname's girls. Though Tamao suffered many skin burns and one of Yaya's eyes were blackened. But, on the whole, none of her soldiers had landed themselves any serious injuries like the others. Even as Kaname sat with most of her soldiers, she picked out the ones she couldn't find. Nagisa, Momomi, Tsubomi and Shion were missing, along with Miyuki Rokujou. Kaname looked to what remained of her soldiers, narrowing her eyes. Yaya grinned a bit and Kaname and pointed behind her.

"Look who showed up right after the battle," she said, and Kaname turned around. It was Amane.

"Took you long enough to get here, Amane," Kaname said, narrowing her eyes at her and wondering if Amane would take her seriously. Amane just shook her head and grinned.

"We made a few pit-stops getting here. Asteroids kept flying at us. No sense coming into battle all bruised up beforehand," she said, smirking at Kaname. Kaname smirked back, and she swore she saw Amane catch a glance at Hikari before looking around the rest of the room. Yaya let out a long, deep breath next to her. "Where's Momomi?"

Kaname narrowed her eyes at the floor. "I don't know." Amane blinked at her and grabbed her wrist, to Kaname's surprise. Her eyes went wide.

"We're going to go find her," Amane said bluntly, and pulled Kaname away from the room her soldiers were situated in towards the many hallways. Kaname had no time to react and followed Amane in the search for Momomi. They must have gone through so many hallways, hallways that Kaname hadn't even known existed, when they finally found her. She was beaten up badly, limping and struggling to walk. Her right arm was covered in blood, staining her uniform, and she had many burns and scratches on her face and arms. Kaname winced at the sight of her, and walked up to her.

"Momomi, what's happened to you?" she asked, her voice cracking, and walked towards her quickly to support her. She was breathing heavily. "Don't try to walk, let me help..."

"I'm...fine..." she said, her voice hoarse. Kaname didn't believe her. Well, no one would, seeing her like that.

"I'm taking you to my room," Kaname said, and she looked to Amane. She was sad that they weren't able to talk, but she had to take care of Momomi now. She looked to Amane and sighed. "Tell my other soldiers that I'm going to be in my room. Tell them not to go trying to interrupt. Call for a nurse."

Amane nodded and left. Kaname continued to support Momomi until they got to her room, where she lay Momomi gently on her bed and kneeled next to her on the floor. Momomi smirked at her.

"Well. Kaname the Nurse. Aren't you the nicest girl? I could walk just fine, you know."

"You were limping," Kaname said, looking away and narrowing her eyes in embarrassment. "I wanted to help."

"Of course you did."

They talked a bit about what Kaname had done in space, how Kaname had blown up the Bugger planet, until the nurse came and tended to Momomi. Kaname watched her, her face wistful. She'd found Momomi, she'd killed the Buggers, and her soldiers were all in tact. Now the problem was the government...


	8. Aftermath

**Chapter 7: Aftermath**

Kaname and Momomi joined the rest of the army after the nurse had finished with Momomi's wounds. They were all sitting in a room, most of them huddled together, others scattered around. Yaya was nonchalantly laying on the floor, sleeping. The rest of them were being guarded by Amane, who was looking out of the many exits of the room, making sure that no Buggers were going to come out and ambush them. Kaname grinned at them all.

"Looks like all of you are finally here," Kaname said. "If you were wondering where I was, I was tending to a wounded soldier. How have you all been?"

There were scattered fine's and okay's. Yaya continued to sleep. Kaname looked down at the floor and rolled her eyes, kicking Yaya in the side of the head.

"Wake up, you lazy lump. This is hardly the time to sleep."

"Whenever you're tired is the time to sleep," Yaya retorted back as she raised herself off the ground like a zombie, walking with her arms stretched out in front of her, making her way towards the girls. Everyone squealed and scattered away, and they laughed. Kaname rolled her eyes and looked to Momomi, who giggled.

"She has a good sense of humor."

"A sense of humor is no good in the midst of battle."

Momomi sighed and shook her head. "The battle is over, Kaname."

Kaname nodded. "With the Buggers? Yeah. But with legislation? Forget about it. They'll be after me."

"For what?"

"Interviews. Proposals. Bill signings. Pacts. Examinations. Tests. Everything," Kaname said. "The government is going to be up at arms for publicity. They'll want to know what happened, everything."

"Then tell them."

Kaname grimaced. "I hate people."

"Then don't tell them."

"Are you messed up in the skull?! If I don't spit out what happened, they're going to come after the rest of us! Maybe torture them into telling them the information that they need!"

Momomi laughed. "You think they'd do that to little kids?"

"The government is cruel, Momomi. Think back during the Civil War. Think back during Internment Camps. Do you want our soldiers to be locked up in a room until they confess?"

Momomi rolled her eyes at her. "We're child soldiers, not the yakuza."

"We might as well be," Kaname said gravely. "I'll bet anything that they come looking for us in the next five minutes. Which reminds me," she said, and then turned to the rest of her girls, who had been listening privately to their conversation. "All of you need to get out of here. There are more modes of transportation in the pod room, Shion can show you all. Make sure you don't leave the group. I don't care where you go. Make a beeline for Earth. We'll arrange a meeting place and I'll join you later."

Everyone nodded, and Shion instantly led the group of girls off into the hallway. The only ones that remained were Momomi, Kaname and Amane.

Kaname narrowed her eyes at them. "Well? Get going."

Momomi and Amane narrowed their eyes back. "Bugger that," Momomi said sternly.

"We're going with you. We started this together, we'll end this together. Got it?" Amane put in, and Kaname grinned at her two best friends and sighed.

"I should have known you two would follow me...Alright then, you guys. Let's play a game of Chicken."

So they did. As they trugged down the hallways, more of the I.F. and government officials were walking down the hallways as well, expectantly looking for Kaname. Momomi and Amane looked horrified, staring at Kaname with nearly bulging eyes. Kaname grabbed both of their shoulders and led them down a deserted hallway into a custodian's closet, where Amane tripped over a bucket of dirty water. Resisting the temptation to laugh, Kaname pulled Amane up from the floor, who's left leg was now drenched in water up to the knee, and pulled her close, placing a hand on her mouth and doing the same to Momomi, to keep them quiet.

"If they find out that you're with me, they'll come after you, too!" Kaname said in a harsh whisper. Her tone was urgent. "I need you two to stay here and hide. I'm going to see if I can reason with them."

"Fat chance of that," Momomi said, pulling Kaname's hand away from her mouth. "You're a 14-year-old kid. They're not going to reason with you."

"I'm their Commander. I just saved the Earth from years of trauma. And you say they aren't going to reason with me?"

That shut Momomi up. Kaname grinned at her and placed a hand on both her shoulders. "I'll be fine," she said softly, reassuringly. It was as though she adopted a whole new personality around Momomi. She smiled back and nodded at her.

"I trust that you will."

Kaname nodded and moved away from her, looked to Amane whom was looking at her curiously, and walked out of the small room and exposed herself in the hallway. Looking up and down the hallway, she contemplated where she should go. It was like she could hear people all around her, their feet tapping against the tile floors with an echoing sound that seemed to bounce off the walls. Clutching the handle of her pistol, which was still tied to her yellow Velcro belt, she ran down a few hallways. What she was running from, however...she had no idea. Luck must have been on her side that day, she hadn't ran into a single guard or I.F. member since she'd left that custodial closet. Inside, she wondered if the people were evading her on purpose.

She found that her speculation was right. When she turned a corner, there stood about five people in a line, aiming their weapons towards her. They seemed to think they were doing a clever ambush, and Kaname laughed at them.

"How cute. Five adults teaming up to take down a 14-year-old. You do realize that I've just saved your hides from blowing up?"

"Enough with the smart talk," a bulky man said in a husky voice, apparently thinking that he was being intimidating. Kaname raised her eyebrows at him. "You're coming with us."

"Am I?" Kaname said, seemingly confused. "I don't think I am, actually."

"Be careful with that kid," another skinnier man said, looking to the bulky, husky-voiced man. "She's terribly violent. She won't hesitate to attack you. We'll have to reason with her."

Kaname laughed again. It seemed as though the fact that she was not in the least bit intimidated greatly pissed off her apparent ambushers. She grinned at them, amused. "You guys are geniuses, really. Teaming up together against one of the most powerful people on Earth? Do you have concrete for brains? Do the five of you really think you'll be able to overthrow one of the strongest and most dangerous people in the world by yourselves? You're sadly mistaken, then."

"We're not scared of a little girl who's barely a teenager!" the skinny man said, and as one, they all reached for their pistols. However, before Kaname could draw her own pistol in return, three girls came running at them, one slamming against the bulky man, causing him to fall backward and right into the skinny man, along with the man next to him. The two people still standing drew their weapons, but the three girls had already surrounded them, pulling their triggers and hitting them both with bullets of red light. Kaname knew that the red lights meant that they would not start boiling from the inside, but would just remain paralyzed for a few hours. She looked to her saviors and noticed the three girls who had tried to attack her back at Battle School.

"That's what you get for trying to kill our Commander!" Shafts, the oldest girl out of the three, said to the unconscious men on the floor, kicking one out of them out of the way. "Pubescent scum..." The girl sighed, looked to the men on the floor, and glanced sideways at Kaname before addressing her friends. "Come on, let's get outta here."

"Wait!" Kaname said, wanting to know what that was all about. She smiled widely. "Shafts, eh? What are you doing helping me?"

Shafts looked at her, her eyes narrowed. Apparently it was hard looking at her. The memories of Battle School seemed to be resurfacing in her mind. There was no doubt that the girl still towered over Kaname like a skyscraper.

"Well," Shafts said, her voice even and cold. "If you had died in the hands of those I.F. guys, and we were the sole witnesses, they would have blamed us for your death, wouldn't they? They would have asked why we weren't dead as well, how we could have let our Commander die when we could ahve helped. I don't want to sign a bunch of paperwork, if you catch my drift."

Kaname grinned at her and it seemed, even for a fraction of a second, that Shafts returned the smile. "You better get out of here before more of the- look, here come more people."

Kaname looked around, and saw that people were coming from left, right and behind them. Kaname backed into a wall, as to avoid being trampled on. A lot of people in I.F. uniforms, and a few people who's uniforms Kaname did not recognize, were belting towards them. Kaname went after an older woman, who was belting at her and trying to grab her. Before she could even land a blow on her by hitting her with her pistol, Shafts grabbed Kaname by the back of her shirt collar and held her up.

"What are you doing?! Don't be stupid!" Shafts said as Kaname squirmed around in her grasp. "Do you even know who that is?!"

"She's trying to kill me!"

"No, you idiot! She's trying to protect you! Stop!"

Kaname calmed down after a few more feeble attempts to free herself from Shafts's grip. She looked up at the face of the taller woman and recognized her at once. She'd seen her in the vids of the First and Second Invasion, going back to Belgium...Shafts kept her grip on Kaname as she looked apologetically at the woman.

"I apologize for her violent ways, Sister Carlotta," she said, in an amusingly polite voice as she struggled to keep Kaname in her grip. "She's not in her right mind."

Sister...? So she's a nun? Kaname thought as she examined the woman. Sister Carlotta smiled softly, a mother-ish smile.

"It's alright, Shafts. I wouldn't expect someone who's gone through as much as she has to trust people too easily. You may release her."

Shafts's grip lifted, and Kaname pulled her arms away, brushing some dirt off of her. Kaname looked up at Carlotta, watching her closely.

"I know who you are," she said knowingly. "You're Sister Carlotta, Julian Delphiki's surrogate mother. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here on orders," Carlotta said, raising her eyebrows at Kaname. "I don't quite understand why that's any of your business."

"Everything is my business."

"You're not the Hegemon, little girl."

"No, I'm not. I'm just the greatest Commander known to humankind. But I suppose that still doesn't add up to your darling Peter Wiggin."

"You have a nasty attitude," Carlotta said, and Kaname rolled her eyes. "Come with me. There are some people here to see you."

Carlotta held out a hand. Kaname stared at it. If this woman though that she was going to hold her hand, she was sadly mistaken. However, to be safe, she held her hand anyway and was led to a room with a great many people inside. She recognized Dink Meeker, Major Anderson, Colonel Graff and Mazar Rackham at once. They all looked apprehensive as Kaname and Carlotta entered the room. Kaname also noticed two other people in the room she did not recognize, a man and a woman standing next to each other. One good look at them told her that they were probably married. But Kaname watched them more closely, and they equally watched her. The man had her same hairstyle, he leaned against the wall the same way she did, and had the same eyes. She looked over to the woman next. She had an air of complete control over the man. He wouldn't make a move unless she gave permission. Even though Kaname did not recognize them, had never seen them before in her entire life...they seemed oddly familiar, like Kaname had known them for a long time and they were just now meeting again after ten years.

Kaname noticed that she was still holding Carlotta's hand, and she pulled her hand away gently as she examined the two people. They couldn't be...

"Kaname," Graff said, and Kaname nearly jumped out of her skin, turning her head sharply towards Graff. "Congratulations on your victory. Earth will continue to be a peaceful place forever thanks to your efforts. Then again, there's still the chaos caused by humankind, but we'll get to that later. I trust by now that you realize who those two people are that you've been staring at."

Kaname looked from Graff to the unnamed people standing next to each other, and she shook her head, addressing Graff but her eyes on the people. "No, I don't."

"Your parents."

Kaname's heart seemed to stop. So her suspicions were right once again. She blinked at the two people, who stared back, and then she aimed her pistol at them, moving from the man's head to the woman's, and back again. Sister Carlotta seemed horrified, but Graff, Dink and Mazar Rackham did not seem surprised.

"You! What's my birth date?"

"October 25th," the woman said, smiling wryly. "Fourteen years ago."

"Middle name?"

"We don't want to embarrass you," the man said, rolling his eyes. Kaname's face turned puce.

"Alright, alright. What's the name of my foster mother, then?"

"You mean Orihime Kohana? How could we not know who she is?"

Kaname sighed. So far, they hadn't flawed on any of the questions so far. Her face grew more and more puce with frustration, her collar seemed to sweat. The man and the woman seemed to notice and they both smirked.

"Don't think you're going to retain a victory out of this conversation, Kaname," the woman said, and Kaname's skin suddenly turned to ice. "There's no denying the truth."

"So," Kaname said, shivering and gazing at the two people, refusing to believe that they were her parents at the moment. "So. What was the reason of sending me to that goddamn awful orphanage?! Why didn't you keep me with you?"

"For the exact reason that you are here now," the man said. "You needed to be away from us. You were supposed to grow up as a great Commander, with nothing in your way. And wanting to protect a family was something that would have definitely held you back. We couldn't have something like that. We knew you'd be the one to lead mother Earth to victory, and you have. We didn't want you to have any weaknesses. However...from what Graff tells me, you _do_ have someone who held you back. Isn't that right?"

Kaname's face turned more puce as she turned and glared at Graff, who was pretending to be in deep conversation with Dink. She looked back at the two people. "It's none of your business."

"We'll make it our business," the woman said, and Kaname felt her insides ice over again at the sound of her voice, the stern tone, the power behind it. "Kaname, you're stubborn and arrogant. You have a bad attitude and you think you're always going to win. But in reality, there's always someone who's going to bring you down, whether they mean to or not. And most likely, they'll mean to.

"That doesn't mean," Kaname said, her voice nearly trembling, "that I'm letting you off the hook for abandoning me."

"We know that our plan might not have been the most...gentle," the man spoke, "but it was effective, nonetheless. Look where it's gotten you. You're one of the strongest people in the world. You're the best Commander ever known to man, besides Ender Wiggin, and who knows where the hell he is. You're all of those things, in yet, you quaver under the pressure of having a nice conversation with your parents."

"Shut up," Kaname said coldly, and Carlotta gave her a stern look. Kaname ignored her. "Just shut up. And stop calling yourself my parents. You're not my parents, you're not-"

"Open your _eyes_, Kaname!" the woman said, her voice magnified to twice it's normal tone, and the hairs on Kaname's neck stood upright, piercing fear into her. Why did this woman make her feel so much fear? "You are not the only person in the world that matters! What about your friends? What about the Earth that you just saved? What about that _girl_?!"

Kaname was struck dumb, speechless. She couldn't even make her mouth open, she just stood there, staring at the woman. The man looked at her as well, looking confused.

"Girl? What girl?"

The woman ignored him, staring back at Kaname. She smiled her wry smile at Kaname.

"Apparently I've scared you into silence. Kaname, just step down and face the truth. We're your parents, not impostors. Just trust us. I know that isn't one of your golden rules, but really. Stop being ignorant."

Kaname sighed. Her heart seemed to stop wanting to beat right out of her chest...when had she started hyperventilating like that? The sudden realization dawned on her. These people were her parents. It was apparent to her now. They were her parents...the people who Kaname had longed to meet for the last ten years, the people who seemed so far away, yet so close to her. She suddenly grinned at them, but did not go run up and hug them like she wanted to. She didn't want to go causing a scene in front of Graff or Dink or Mazar Rackham.

Almost as suddenly as the realization hit her, the door to the room burst open and Amane went sailing onto the ground. She sputtered and got to her feet, getting back in fighting stance, holding her fists in front of her.

"Bring it on, you scum!" she said, and dodged a bullet of light and launched herself at her attackers. A few seconds later, she re-entered the room, apparently thinking that it was empty, brushing off her uniform. "Damn it...persistent little pieces of...oh," she said, and she looked up, noticing the people. Her face turned a light pink. "Sorry about that, Colonel Graff. Kaname!" She said, suddenly spotting her and grinning. "People are still looking for you outside."

Kaname rolled her eyes. "I'm sure. Where's Momomi? Wasn't she with you?"

"She...was," Amane said, looking as though she was choosing her words carefully. "But when those people attacked me, I lost sight of her. I'm sorry. She looked like she was fighting other people, too. Who knew we had so many spies here?"

Amane suddenly looked at the two people standing next to each other, then looked from them to Kaname. "Who are they?"

"No time to explain, but they're my parents," Kaname said, almost proudly, and Amane's jaw dropped. "Go find Momomi and tell her to go hang with the rest of the girls. I want you to do the same. I'll join you soon, hopefully."

"Yes, _Commander_," Amane said, giving her a mock salute, and sprinted out of the room. Kaname's parents looked at each other, their eyebrows raised.

"What are you two thinking? She's not the one," Kaname said, narrowing her eyes. They grinned at her and shrugged.

"We figured she might not be your type," her father said, shrugging. "We pictured you being with a more 'girl-y' kind of girl. Anyway, shouldn't you be getting to your army?"

"I...oh, yeah," Kaname said. She had completely forgotten the group of girls who were waiting for her instructions a few floors down. The shock of finding her parents had blocked the rest of the thoughts out of her mind. She smiled at them both again, and they smiled at her. "So what are you two going to do? Go back to Earth?"

"Eventually," her mother said. "We've got a few things to patch up here. My suggestion is that you round your girls up and head out back to Earth in the pods. We'll send you our new address so you can come and join us at home. We can talk about everything then. But, more importantly, you have to take care of your responsibility first. Get them all home safely. We'll see you later."

Kaname nodded, waved at them, and sprinted out of the room like Amane, her spirits lifted, feeling happier than she had ever felt in her life. Her life seemed to radiate some sort of...complete-ness. She no longer felt alone. She had Momomi, her parents, her army...everything seemed so real now. When she made it to the room where the girls were scattered around, some huddled together, she called to them, clapping her hands together.

"Huddle!" she called, and the girls made a crowd around Kaname. "We're heading off for Earth. Shion, Shizuma, Miyuki and Chikaru will take you guys in groups, since it's too dangerous to go in a big mob. Wait for your next instructions in the pod room. If anyone tries to get in your way, show them no mercy. Move out!"

The girls started organizing themselves at once. Kaname blinked at Amane, who shrugged.

"I still couldn't find her," she said, and Kaname waved her off.

"It's okay. She'll turn up, if I know her as well as I do. Let's go."

They made it to the pod room, and some girls were already being placed in pods in groups of three, the person steering always an older girl. Yaya was in a pod with Hikari and Tsubomi, miming steering in the air and dodging asteroids for their amusement. After about five minutes watching the older students get organized, Kaname clapped her hands again to get their attention. Each and every head turned to her.

"Nice job, nice job. It seems like a lot of you already know how to direct the pods. Since these are a lot faster than regular spaceships, for evacuation purposes, we'll make it to Earth a lot faster. But we have to plan our course well, or else we might run into satellites and other space junk. Just follow my lead. Any questions?"

Everyone was silent, and as soon as Kaname was going to give them the heads-up that it was alright to get revved up and ready, the door slammed open and Momomi ran into the room, red-faced and panting.

"I'm...sorry," she said through breaths. "Got...ambushed...had to...hold them off..."

"It's alright," Kaname said in her professional, Commander-voice, even though she was quite happy to see that she had found them. "We're just about to make the departure for Earth. Go ahead and get into the pod with Amane."

Momomi nodded, they looked at each other for a split second, then Momomi took Amane's sleeve and dragged her off to the only empty pod. Kaname gave her last few announcements, and then sat herself in between Momomi and Amane, handling the controls.

"Everyone set the coordinates for Cell Block #0083426. This will make sure that we're going in the right direction."

Mechanical clicks and buttons could be heard all around her, as she was listening to all of them through the speaker in her pod. Tsubomi's voice carried through the clicking as they finished entering the coordinates. "London, England? We're landing in America?"

"Well, I would have given each pod a different destination, but then we would have been separated too easily."

"But won't they have a better chance of finding us if we're all headed for the same destination?"

"Ah," Kaname said, grinning. "That's the exact question I wanted someone to ask. You see, you typed the coordinates for London, but what you don't know is that each pod has a unique code so that it seems that you're heading for a different direction. So if people are tailing us, they won't know that we're all together. It's one of my many brilliant plans."

Momomi snorted at this comment and Kaname glared at her, pushing her into the door of the pod. "Are we ready? Then let's head out!"

A few girls let out a battle-cry and pressed the controls on their pods, causing them to rise into the air. About ten pods were now floating off the ground, off into space. The black atmosphere of the endless space engulfed them, and some girls made noises of awe. Kaname didn't understand why, though. Most of these girls have traveled in space their whole lives. Then again, they had always been inside, forced to look up at a red sky with pink clouds twenty-four-seven when they were outside. They had never once been able to actually look into space, see the stars and the asteroids and the planets zooming past them as they made a beeline for Earth.

Being in the pod was exactly like driving a car, except for the fact that they were able to turn upside-down at will. As Kaname drove, Momomi and Amane started to have a conversation about different feelings and how they were caused. Kaname rolled her eyes.

"Why don't you take a Psychology class to learn about that kind of thing instead of trying to come up with theories yourselves and end up thinking wrong things?"

They ignored her and she sighed, continuing to steer with one hand, her other hand resting on the chair behind her, her fingers inches from Momomi's shoulder. She did not touch her, though, even though every single nerve in her body seemed to ache for the feeling. She would not do it while Amane was there with them.

They had been flying for about two hours at this point. The journey to Earth was expected to be a few months in a normal spaceship, and they were already half-way there. Kaname was wide-awake and still steering with the same hand, while Amane and Momomi slept. Amane leaned against the window, and Momomi leaned gently on Kaname's shoulder. Kaname did not mind, she was obviously tired. But she felt like falling asleep right with her, sharing the relaxation. Oh well, they would have more time when they made it to Earth.

"How much farther, Commander?" Hikari's voice suddenly sounded, and Kaname jumped, making sure she didn't wake up Momomi. She hadn't realized that the girls were still flying with her. Most of them had remained silent, apparently a lot of them were sleeping.

"About two hours," Kaname said, her voice was robotic. Exhaustion was starting to take over her body, her nerves were starting to shut down, and her hand almost slipped off of the steering wheel. She felt Amane stir next to her, and a few seconds later, she was awake. She must have noticed that Kaname was tired, because she offered to steer for the rest of the way. Kaname was torn between two desires...the desire to sleep, and the desire to stay near Momomi. But the desire to sleep was greater and she was now leaning on the cold glass of the door, looking out the window. She thanked and mentally hated Amane for her generosity. But, in the next few minutes, all feelings other than exhaustion drained out of her, and she fell asleep.


End file.
